, «0 







* AY "^ * 




"^0^ 



.^^^ 










.HO. 


























■.y ^ 






i t » 


























X,^*^' 















LETTERS 



TO THE 



HON. WILLIAM JAY, 



BEING 



A REPLY TO HIS " INQ.UIRY 



INTO THE 



AMERICAN COLONIZATION 



AND 



AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES." 



BY DAVID M.'^EESE, M. D, 

OF NEW-YORK. 



Weto=Yorfe t ^ 

PUBLISHED BY LEAVITT, LORD & Co. 

180 BROADWAY. 

BOSTON :— CROCKER fie BREWSTER 

1835. 



[Entered according to Act of Congress, by Uavid M. Reese, M. D. in the clerk's 
office of the District Court of the Southern District of New- York.] 



Stereotyped by Conner & Cooke. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



FVom the Rev. John Breckinridge, President of the Young Men^syo- 
Ionization Society of Pennsylvania. 

New- York, May 13, 1835. 

I have examined with much interest and satisfaction, the proof 
sheets of the chief parts (the whole being not quite complete) of Dr. 
Reese's *' Letters to the Hon. Wm, Jay," in reply to his late work 
against the American Colonization Society. 

Dr. Reese has largely merited the thanks of the American people, 
for the prompt and satisfactory manner in which he has refuted and 
exposed a work, which, upon a momentous and agitating question, 
and under an imposing name, has said more disingenuous, sophistical, 
gud yet dangerous things, than I had supposed it possible to be uttered 
in so small a compass, by so honest, so good, and so sensible a man. 

JOHN BRECKINRIDGE. 



Prom the Rev. Drs. Milnor, Brownlee, and De JVitt. 

Dear Sir, — Having been favoured with the opportunity of reading 
the proof sheets of a large portion of your answer to the recent publi- 
cation of the Hon. William Jay, assailing the principles and proceed- 
ings of the American Colonization Society, we beg leave to express 
our approbation of the views which you have presented ; and to add, 
that, in our opinion, you have very successfully defended the Institu- 
tion against the charges in the book referred to, exposed the mistakes 
and errors of its worthy author, and presented arguments and facts, 
as we conceive, abundantly sufficient to satisfy every impartial mind 
of the preference which should be given to the practical operations 
now in successful pro.secution by the friends of colonization, for the re- 
lief of a distressed class of our fellow men, over the fruitless, impracti- 
cable, and dangerous theories, of the advocates of immediate abolition. 

We cheerfully commend your work to the public, and trust its ge- 
neral perusal will have a happy effect in removing unfavourable im- 



IV RECOMMENDATIONS. 

pressions, and in increasing the interest which has recently been sa 
signally manifested in the cause of colonization. 

As citizens desiring the continuance and perpetuity of the peace, 
security, and happy union of our beloved country ; as philanthropists 
anxious to promote the teniporal and spiritual welfare of the people ol 
colour, both bond and free ; as Christians willing to pray and labour 
for the extension of the blessings of civilization and religion to be- 
nighted Africa ; we do earnestly hope, that a cause, so blessed already 
by a benignant Providence. Atill continue to grow in the favour of this 
enlightened community, and its active advocates and supporters be 
furnished by its liberality with the means of accomplishing their be- 
nevolent and noble object. 

We remain your Christian friends and coadjutors, 

JAMES MILNOR, D. D. 
WM. C. BROWNLEE, D. D. 



THOS. DE WITT, D. D. 



Dr. David M. Reese, 
New-Yorlc, May 18, 1835. 



From the Rev. N. Bangs, Editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal. 

I have examined the Letters of Dr. D. M. Reese, addressed to the 
Hon. William Jay, in defence of the American Colonization Societ}', 
and in opposition to the Anti-Slavery Society, and believe them an 
ample and able refutation of the errors of the latter, as exhibited in 
Mr. Jay's unfortunate book, and a triumphant as well as timely vin- 
dication of the principles and proceedings of the American Coloniza- 
lion Society; and therefore most heartily and cordially recommend 
these Letters to the careful pertisa] and serious consideration of the 
American public. 

NATHAN BANGS, D. D. 
-Nevi-Yorl, May 18, 1835. 



PREFACE. 



On the appearance of the " Inquiry" of the Hon. Mr. Jay, into the 
American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies, I eager- 
ly procured a copy, and read it throughout with mingled emotion.^ of 
pain and pleasure. I was pained that so worthy a man should exhibit 
such evidence of ignorance of the subject on which he undertakes to 
enlighten the public ; and still more, that such a man should descend 
from the dignity of his profession and character, to assail and satirize 
many of the ablest and best men of this nation, and that noblest enter- 
prise of human benevolence, to which the American Colonization So- 
ciety is consecrated ; and this too on such queslionable authorities, as 
those on which alone, he seems to have been dependent for his state- 
ments. Btit I found pleasure in this renewed demonstration, that the 
colonization scheme, though assailed by another of the champions 
among its foes, a man of talents, learning, and piety too, is, neverthe- 
less, so firmly erect upon the immoveable foundation of light, and love, 
and truth; that it comes forth from this fiery ordeal, " like gold seven 
times tried," and retains all its brilliancy, purity, and strength, untar- 
nished by the process, and trittmphmg in its own native and heaven- 
born sublimity. 

Such were my impressions when I had finished its perusal ; and a 
similar estimate of the utter impotency of the book, is, I have since 
learned, very generally entertained, by those of our fellow citizens, 
who are well informed in relation to the history and operations of the 
colonization enterprise. I therefore felt no disposition to attempt a 
reply, for, at that time, I confidently believed that the author had 
furnished, in the volume itself, abundant materials for his own refu- 
tation. I think so still, although I have yielded to the judgment of 
others, and consented again to engage in this controversy. I feel that 
I have no other qualification, than a conscientious attachment to the 
cause of colonization, because of au hones! and deliberate persuasion, 
that it is one of supreme importance to the prosperity of my own 
cotmtry; of unmingled benevolence to the coloured population of this 
■and, whether free or enslaved j and of rich and unspeakable promise 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

to fallen, degraded, and heathenish Africa. But as many of our 
friends, who agree with me in my view of the harmlessness of the 
assault, which Mr. Jay's book contains, express their apprehensions, 
lest the magic of his name upon its title page, may mislead the " un- 
learned and unwary," and that multitudes of such may be taught to 
infer from our silence, that we cannot or dare not meet this " giant" 
in the field of discussion, they have judged it expedient, from these 
considerations, that a vindication of the society and its friends from 
the unjust accusations of the Hon. Judg6, is imperiousl)' called for, 
and, by common consent, the author of the present Letters has been 
urged to the unwelcome task. 

That it has not been performed by another and an abler hand, is 
not less a matter of regret to myself, than it can be to others. For 
although I do not, in matters of conscience and duty, quail beneath 
the frowns of any foe, nor shrink from any measure of obloquy and 
reproach, which I am permitted to share with the wisest and purest 
men of this nation : yet, with the evidence of the spirit and temper of 
the present race of abolitionists, v.'hich experience has furnished, 
unless a man is doubly strong in his own conscious integrity of pur- 
pose, and prepared to endure the revilings, and brave the barkings of 
the whole kennel press, hired for the purpose ; he will neither seek 
nor desire a conflict with such antagonists as gather around almost 
every anti-slavery periodical. It is perhaps well, however, that the 
party should be taught, in the present case, that this Goliath, in whom 
they glory, can be encountered by the " least among the hosts of our 
Israel," and, in the name of that God in whom we trust alone for the 
success of colonization, I go forth in this defensive war. 

In the following Letters, it has been, my design to treat the author 
with all proper respect, while I animadvert upon the contents of his 
book, with the same freedom with which he has treated the sentiments 
of colonizationists. I have therefore taken up the several chapters of 
his whole " Inquiry," and brought into view each of his prominent 
arguments, and the authorities on which he places most reliance; 
and in correcting his numerous mistakes, and exposing the contradic- 
tions and inconsistencies which abound in the volume, I have not de- 
signedly, in any instance, charged upon him an intention to deceive, 
but attribute his blunders to his recent associations, which have led 
him to fallacious sources for information, and perverted his own mind, 
so that, on this particular subject, he has become disqualified for sober 
thinking. And in offering this apology for the author of the Inquiry, 
which in candour and Christian charity is his due, we have another 
striking and melancholy proof of that mental and moral infatuation, 
which affords the 4eplorable evidence th.al the imputation of " fanati- 



PREFACE. Vll 

cism," however it may be repelled b}' the zealot? for immediate aboli- 
tionism, is nevertheless neither unmerited nor unfounded. 

Under vv^hal other influence save that of pure fanaticism, could an 
intelligent, virtuous, and respectable citizen, gravely afhx his name to 
a book containing such perversions of facts, — distortions of mean- 
ings, — misquotations of authors, — direct and palpable inconsisten- 
cies, — disconnected and incongruous declamation, and such illiberal 
censoriousness toAvards his " fellow citizens and fellow Christians." 
as those of vvhich I have convicted this " Inquiry" of the Hon. William 
Jay 7 If the reader can excuse or explain such examples as those 
pointed out in the following Letters, in any milder and more Christinn 
language than that which imputes them to fanaticism, I shall rejoice, 
that it may ever hereafter be adopted. I confess for myself, that this is 
the only mantle to cover them, which it appears to. me is furnished, 
even from the wardrobe of Cn.vRiTY itself. 

On the 07ie page we read, that tlie whole of the slaves in the United 
States are " kept in ignorance, and compelled to live without God, and 
to die without hope." And on another we are told, that " 245,000" of 
these same slaves are " Christians, ^^ and '^possess a saving knowledge 
of the religion of Christ !" 

At onetime the Colonization Society is charged with "professing to 
be a remedy for slavery, and the only one;" — and at another, it is de- 
clared, that its "professed constitutional object is exclusively that of 
colonizing the free blacks and manumitted slaves, and that it has no 
more right to meddle witfi slavery or emancipation, than a Bible So- 
ciety !" On one page, the Colonization Society is called a " powerfvJ 
institution^'^ and on another, it is called " ntterhj iravotent.^'' a " v-cak, 
broken-winded, good far nothing teavi /" 

In one place we are told, first, that " the Colonization Society is, in its 
general influence, decidedly Anti-Christian ;" and that it can " in no 
sense be termed a religious society ;" and on the same page, it is said 
that this Colonization Society contains " midtitudes of religious men.'' 
And again, " The Colonization Society unquestionably comprises a 
vast number of as pure and dkvoted Christians, as can be found in 
this or any other country !" 

But if this be not unsophisticated fanaticism, let me ask the reader 
to afl[ix a softer name to the attempt here made by a good man, to ap- 
propriate the sentiments and language of his own father to the support 
of the scheme of immediate abolition, when that father, distinguished 
as he was for benvolence to every class of his fellow beings, expressed 
those sentiments and that language distinctly in behalf of gradual 
abolition, of which " gradualism" he continued an unwavering advo- 
cate, as the extracts from his writings conclusivelv shov,\ 



VIU PREFACE. 

But in the reference to Mr. Jefferson, made in several parts of Mr, 
Jay's book, his sentiments are so palpably perverted from the connex- 
ion and design in which they were expressed, that no other evidence 
is necessary, to convict the author of fanaticism, or wickedness, and 
the former only is insinuated, than we have in the following sentence 
IVom his writings. 

"Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that 
these people (the slaves) are to be free, nor is it less certain that the 
two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, 
'habit, opinion, have drawn indelible lines of distinction between them. 
It is still in our power to direct the process of eviancipation and de- 
portation peaceably, and in such slow degrees, as that the evil will 
wear o^ insensibly, and their place be, pari passu, filled up by free white 
labourers." 

Thus spoke Thomas Jefferson, than whom no man was ever better 
qualified to judge on this great subject,* and yet an attempt is made to 
identify him, as well as John Jay, with the visionaryscheme of imme- 
diate abolition, and they are both quoted, most inconsistently, for this 
purpose. If this be not " fanaticism," when resorted to by a good man, 
by what name shall it be called '? 

But I forbear to anticipate any farther the long catalogue of similar 
testimonies, which my letters exhibit, but would briefly inquire of any 
reader who is intelligent and candid, whether it is possible to account 
for such examples, as those to which allusion is made, on any principle 
consistent with the known character of the author for learning and 
piety, except by the imputation of fanaticism 1 And when each suc- 
cessive example of such conversion to the anti-slavery ranks, is accom- 
panied by the evidences of a similar abandonment of all the restraints 
of reason and consistency; to what other cause is it to be ascribed"? 
And here I am constrained to say, that if the members of the Anti- 
Slavery Society were not all fanatics, they would by this time discover 
what is palpably manifest to every body else, that their doctrines and 
measures are already inflicting accumulated and irreparable mischiefs 
upon the oppressed race, for whose welfare and happiness they profess 
exclusive zeal and benevolence, and for whose good many of them are 
doubtless conscientiously labouring. If they would suffer a coloniza- 
tionist to plead the cause of the poor and needy, and if my voice in 
behalf of the suffering coloured population, whether free or enslaved, 
could be heard, amidst the groans of the anti-slavery press and the 



' Mr. Bimey says, that "Mr. Jefferson was the advocate of all from whom liberty 
was withheld, be they white, red, or black." Andyet vve see that lie was the advQ- 
cate only of gradual emancipation and deportation, by slow degrees f 



PREFACE, IX 

fulminating anathemas of anti-slavery lecturers, I would supplicate 
their mercy, and implore them to desist from their misplaced and mis- 
guided philanthropy. In the name of the aiflicted free blacks of the 
north and the south, I would point them to the new and oppressive 
legislation which they have provoked by their ill-limed endeavours, 
and the rash impetuosity of their blind and mistaken zeal. And in 
behalf of the slaves of this land, I would invoke their humanity and 
religion, while groaning under already intolerable laws, and beseech 
them to withhold themselves from efforts, which in their results have 
already aggravated the number and severity of the privations and 
hardships which bondage inflicts. 

But if my vindication of the Colonization Society disqualifies me 
from successfully urging my appeal, may I not ask Mr. Jay himself to 
pause, now that his book has gone forth for the vain though avowed 
purpose of the "entire prostration," the " utter extinction of the Coloni- 
zation Society;" — now that he has proclaimed " unrelenting hostility,"^ 
and beaten up for volunteers to " labour without rest and without 
weariness" for tMs great object ; may I be permitted to ask him to 
pause and inquire, Cui bono ? Suppose that the Colonization Societ)^, 
were " utterl)'' extinct," and that you had already effected its " entire 
prostration" — Let me ask what good purpose or result do your san- 
guine hopes allow you to anticipate, for the coloured race in the Uni- 
ted States whether free or slaves? In'that case the American Anti- 
Slavery Society would be your only hope of benefiting them, and 
where should we look for the first fruits of your success. Whose 
voice would then plead the cause of the oppressed in the slaveholding 
states'? "While your anti-slavery appeals from the forum and the press 
were " waking up the north," how many of the "millions of slaves in 
the south" would be thus emancipated, when your orators are excluded 
from every slaveholding state in the union, and your publications 
suffered to lie in the post-offices, or committed by thousands to tlie 
flames'? And if you could not hope to benefit the slaves, by your 
labours in the north, what influence would you exert upon the free 
coloured population of the states south of the Potomac or even in 
Maryland or Delaware'? Have not the events of the last two years, 
demonstrated that these northern anti-slavery efforts, in their effects 
upon the free blacks of the south, are " evil, only evil, and that continu- 
ally T' 

But shall we look to the non-slaveholding states, and estimo,'e the 
character of the tree of " immediate abolition" by its " fruits 7" What 
then have been the results upon the condition of the free coloured 
people in New-York 1 Within two brief years what scenes have been 
wiinessed in this citv and' other sections of the state"? Before the last 



X PREFACE. 

year, an instance of insult to persons of colour in this city, under any 
circumstEinces, was exceedingly rare. They mingled in all our popu- 
lar assemblages, and though often genteelly and even fashionably 
attired, their presence attracted little attention, and provoked no 
indignity. The intelligent and respectable among them, and there 
are many such in our city, were uniformly treated with kindness, and 
a tender sympathy for their depressed condition was generally felt 
among all classes of the community, which if suffered to grow, could 
not have failed to be most salutary in its results. Their friends among 
the whites, were rejoicing in the gradual and successful efforts made 
for their elevation, and the prospect of improving their condition 
encouraged the efforts which humanity and religion were making for 
their improvement. But in an evil hour, the spirit of Garrisonism 
was infused among these depressed people, and the result was first 
visible among themselves. From having been quiet and unassuming, 
as the better class of them proverbially were, they now began to as- 
sume an attitude of pride and independence. They were taught to 
regard themselves as perfectly equal to the whites in every aspect, 
and to attribute their separation, which long custom had rendered 
tolerable, as the fruits of robbery and oppression. Above all they 
were taught to abhor the Colonization Society, and to hate its mem- 
bers and friends with a perfecU hatred. The idle and visionary hope 
of political and social equality in every relation, has been drilled into 
them, until they have lost the characteristics, which until now have 
been their safeguard from indignity and outrage. And accordingly 
these poor unfortunates have thence been exposed to outrages which 
else had never been committed. Apart from the sufferings inflicted 
upon the innocent and unoffending, during the abolition riots of the 
last year, they have since been insulted in numerous instances in the 
streets, and in public assemblages, until it has become dangerous for a 
coloured person male, or female, to be caught in a crowd. Their 
clothes have been torn off, they have been beaten and pelted with 
stones, and other acts of shameful cruelty have been committed upon 
them, such as were hardly ever known in this community. And why 
this change in the condition and prospects of the free coloured people 
of the north'? Unquestionably it is the result of abolitionism, and 
the leaders of this party are responsible not only for their own acts, 
but for the altered bearing and conduct of these people themselves, so 
far as this may have provoked these outrages. From my soul I pity 
the delusion under which the coloured people of the north have been 
beguiled into circumstances so afflicting to themselves, by the " flatter- 
ing \mction" of these pseudo philanthropists. 
The truth is becoming more and more apparent, that in the anti- 



PREFACE. a 

slavery crasade against " vincible prejudice," they have created this 
prejudice where it did not exist, and they have fostered and strength- 
ened it where it did, so that in the less intelligent portion of the com- 
munity it has acquired an intensity by which it has been converted 
into cruelty and persecution. And this has been exhibited in so 
many instances, invariably and directly resulting from the measures 
of the Anti-Slavery Society, that intelligent men of colour are begin- 
ning to feci, in the language of one of them, that " these friends are 
digging a pit for our destruction." Still, however, multitudes of them 
are so infatuated by the anti-slavery delusion, that they continue to 
be inspired with the visionary hope, that they shall soon be elevated 
to perfect and universal equality with the white race. 

I know that the members of the Anti-Slavery Society deceive them- 
selves and others by the notion that if the Colonization Society were 
annihilated, these evils would no longer exist. They seem to think 
that but for the provision made by the society to transport to Africa 
such free persons of colour or manumitted slaves, as wish to go there, 
all the '^prejudice of caste" would wither and die, and no farther ob- 
stacle exist in the way of " immediate and unconditional emancipa- 
tion." But facts are altogether against this hypothesis. The cause 
of abolition is prosperous only in those sections of the south where 
colonization is popular, and no where is this cause so hindered as in 
those slaveholding states, where the society has but few friends. So 
obvious has been the influence of the, Colonization Society in pro- 
moting actual abolition, that the true' friends of the coloured race, 
would find a sufficient motive for supporting it in this single feature, 
if it accomplished nothing else either here or in Africa. 

I will only add, that the discreet members of the Anti-Slavery Soci- 
ety, and there are doubtless many such, might find in the class of men 
with whom they are associated, ample reason to pause and ponder 
and retreat. It might not be easy to predict who would not become 
the votaries of abolitionism in any given place, where anti-slavery 
meetings were held ; but one might readily prophesy who would cer- 
tainly become such. Individuals and congregations, who are known 
to be radicals, in church or state ; — prone to ultraism on every subject 
with which they are connected, are the early converts to anti-slavery 
lecturers. Let the observation be made in any city, town, village, or 
congregation, where abolitionism has gained partizans, and it will be 
found, that however many from among other classes of the popula- 
tion may go over to the party, all those known by their general cha- 
racter to be enthusiasts, visionaries, fanatics, and radicals, in politics 
or morals, are sure to be included. And if there happen to be a church 
of any denomination, whose pastor and membership are proverbially 



Xii PRfiTACE. 

given up to eccentricities in doctrine or to ultra measures, such clu^rc^l 
will prove a luxuriant garden for the growth of abolitionism. And 
though Mr. Jay seems to deprecate the fact that " infidels" are occa- 
sionally found among the friends of colonization, yet among his own 
associates, when he becomes better acquainted, he will find many such. 
One of these infidels in this city, who is an active friend of temper- 
ance as well as of immediate abolition, publicly and unblushingly 
avowed the sentiment very lately, that " neither the Anti- Slavery Soci- 
ety nor the Temperance Society, could ever succeed, unless the Bible 
could be got out of the way .'" And when asked for an explanation, 
he falsely alleged that the Bible justified both slavery and intemper- 
ance, and referred to what he called Scripture proofs, which he said, 
while the people believed and reverenced, would be an insuperable 
obstacle to both these societies. 

As I have attempted in the following Letters a vindication of the 
Colonization Society, because this is the chief object of his attack, 
and because I am in heart and action identified with that enter- 
prise ; — so I have been constrained to carry the war into the enemy's 
camp, and examine the principles, professions, and tendency of the 
American Anti-slavery Society, which is the subject of Mr. Jay's 
affection and eulogy. 

Whether the " free discussion," which Mr. Jay invites, and which 
anti-slavery orators and presses _pro/e55 to desire, and which is here 
attempted, shall be met with a spirit correspondent with their unani- 
mous professions, remains to be seen. Should Mr. Jay think him- 
self misapprehended, or should he be able to maintain any one of the 
heinous charges against the Colonization Society, which I have deni- 
ed and repelled by unimpeachable testimony, the opportunity of free 
discussion is accessible to him, and the public will expect it. To such 
a reply, or to one from any other respectable source, I shall deem it a 
duty and pleasure to extend all due regard, and if I cannot sustain 
myself in the estimation of the discerning public, I am content to 
suffer the forfeiture. But while I shall feel bound to give respectful 
notice to any reply to my arguments, or any denial of the facts I re- 
cord, let it be remembered that no reviling, calumny, or abuse aimed 
at my humble self, from any quarter, will meet any kind of notice. 
" I am doing a great work, and cannot come downP 

With these prefatory observations, I submit the following Letters to 
the judgment of the reader. 



LETTERS 



TO THE 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 



LETTER L 

Sir, 
Having read your "Inquiry into the character and tendency 
of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery 
Societies," and being convinced that the " character and ten- 
dency" of your own book, demand an "inquiry," at this crisis 
in public feeling, which you have selected for its publication, 
I have chosen the form of letters to yourself, as that most con- 
venient for my present purpose. The high regard I entertain 
for your general character and private worth, so favourably 
known, and deservedly appreciated among our fellow citizens, 
will entitle you to my respectful courtesy, and our mutual 
relationship as professors of a common Christianity, forbid that 
I should impeach your motives, or impugn either your integrity 
or benevolence. 

The subject of your "Inquiry," however, is to every Ame- 
rican citizen, of paramount importance, and to the Christian 
of absorbing interest. This you seem fully to estimate when 
you affirm in your Introduction, " If the claims of the Ameri- 
can Colonization Society are founded in truth^ they cannot he 
resisted without guilt /" page 7. And as you have written a 
volume in " resistance" of those claims, you have been obliged, 
for the sake of your own consistency and justification, to at- 
1* 



a LETTERS TO THE 

tempt the proof that they are not " founded in truth." You 
will forgive me when I say, that you have failed to make out 
your case, not for lack of talents as a. citilian, or of skill as a 
controversialist, or of learning as a judge, or of sincerity as a 
Christian, but you have in the present case been self-deceived 
by "want of information," and therefore you must permit me 
in turn to " regret most sincerely, that a man possessing the 
power of doing so much good, should ever, through want of 
INFORMATION, SO gricvously misapply it." p. 16^. : ' ' 

In this "Introduction" to your book, which is the subject of 
criticism in the present letter, your Jirst paragraph makes the 
astounding affirmation, that in the United States there are 
2,245,144 slaves,* "compelled to live without God, and to die 
without ho'pe, by a people professing to reverence the obliga- 
tions of -Christianity." On such a fact, if true, an appeal 
anight be framed which would awaken heaven and earth, and 
be "enough to make an angel weep." But is it true, that the 
whole of our slave population "live without .God!" and do 
they all "die without hope P^ and are they "compelled" to 
do so by the inhuman monsters, who inhabit this nation? 
Every reader who finds this hyperbole at the very threshold of 

* This estimate of the whole number of slaves in the United States 
■~A\ the 1st of January last, is made from the ratio of increase between 
1820 and 1830. And as this description of ab.^oluie and compulsory 
heathenism^ is applied to them all, without exception^ we shall look in 
vain among the publications of the Colonization Society, for any si- 
milar instance of ^^disparaging the free blacks,"' and ''discouraging 
all efforts for their improvement," as the author's rhetorical flourish 
here presents of " these millions of slaves.'^ If such be truly the 
character of the slaves, we should scarcely look for its avowal by an 
advocate of " immediate abolition," since it presents "an apology for 
slavery" which would justify the perpetuity of the system, unless they 
could be imriiediately transformed by the process of emancipation, and 
created anew by "instajit abolition." The preparation of such hea- 
ihens for freedom, would indeed be a "triumph of gradualis/n" al- 
though it must be confessed that this picture of the intellectual and 
moral de2:radation of 2;245,14-4 of ottr fellow beings, is enough not 
only to annihilate the hopes of inune'diate abolitionists, but to fill the 
hearts of the advocates of gradtud emancipation itself with despair. 
For if the whole of our slave popiilation, at this day, be such as is 
here represented, then may philanthropy and religion despair of a 
remedy, and abandon their hopeless efforts. But on more mature re- 
flection, Mr. Jay will acknowledge that he is mistaken, and lament 
his own " want of information." 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 3 

your book, must conclude that you commenced writing it in a 
state of mind and feeling not the best calculated for a grave 
"inquiry," or you would not thus indiscreetly make such a 
statement, so utterly " at variance with truth and Christianity," 
as you charitably charge against the Colonization Society on 
your 13th page.* 

Suffer me to ask whether you had forgotten this sentence 
when you penned the 132d page of your book? How else do 
you say in that place, " We will not assert there are 7io Chris- 
tians among the slaves, for we trust there are some.^^ Ami 
again, " we suppose that 245,000 slaves possess a savinL- 
knowJedge of the religion of Christ .'" Do you mean to say 
that these 245,000 Christians, who " possess a saving know- 
ledge of the religion of Christ, are compelled to live without 
God^ and die without hope?" And can you persuade yourself, 
that such a number of Christians, who are the " light of the 
"world," though they be in bondsj can fail to " let their ligh: 
shine' among the slaves around them, and exert an influence 
which shall prevent all " these millions from being kept in 
ignorance, and compelled to live without God and die withowt 
hope .'" If this be not undervaluing the Christian character, 
artd depreciating the effect of Christian example, to an extent 
beyond any of the sentiments of the Colonization Society, 
against which you urge this objection, I fear that you will b<r 
grievously misinterpreted, for such will be the natural and le- 

* The reader will, I am sure, be surprised and grieved at the ex- 
travagance of this sentiment. If it be true, that all the slaves of the 
United States, are "compelled to live vnthmit God and die withoro: 
kope,''^ what must be the immeasurable guilt and infamy which mus:. 
attach to those who inflict this compulsion ! Is Mr. Jay aware of tht 
fact that thousands of slaveholders, are his fellow Christians, mem- 
bers of his own and other evangelical churches, in the southern and 
western states 1 Does he not know that very many of these are inde- 
fatigably employed in the religious instruction of their slaves, in en- 
couraging and supporting missioyis to the plantations, on many oi 
which churches are built for the slaves, by these slaveholders, where 
the gospel and the means of grace are faithfully supported at the ex- 
pense of the planters'? How then does he charge upon the owners of 
these slaves, the heinous guilt, the fiend-like crime, of "compelling 
their slaves to live without God and die without hope 1" If he him- 
self believes this statement, he must regard the entire south as worse 
than Sodom or Gomorrah, and every owner of slaves as a demon 
incarnate. I envy not, either his charity or his conscience. 



4 LETTERS TO THE 

gitiraate conclusion of your readers. I confess it is a subject 
of surprise and affliction to me, that I am, thus early in my 
notice of your book, required to direct your attention to such 
glaring inconsistencies and mistakes. I did not expect it from 
the estimate I had formed of the author, and must deeply re- 
gret that the reader should find on the 5th page, this unfounded 
allegation, and then read on the Sth the profession of a " solemn 
recollection" on the part of the author, that " no deviation 
from truth can escape the notice and displeasure of Him unto 
whom all hearts are open and from whom no secrets are hid !'' 
It is too painful to dwell on this unhappy evidence of the ten- 
dency of that malign influence w^hich it is lamentably appa- 
rent, you have unconsciously received, by uncongenial proxi- 
mity with the " spirit of anti-Colonization." 

But your "want of information" has led you into errors 
equally glaring in relation to the American Colonization So- 
ciety, and this will appear to yourself and every reader in the 
very first mention you make of that institution, p. 7. 

"A powerful institution is now in operation, which pro- 
fesses to he not merely a remedy for slavery, but the only 
remedy that can he devised.'''' 

Now there are two statements in this brief sentence which I 
deny. The American Colonization Society does not '''"'profess 
to be a remedy for slavery," nor does it profess to be the only 
one that "ca?i he devised." To each of these charges, in the 
language of the author in his vindication of his own associates ; 
"the members of the Colonization Society plead not guilty, 
and desire to be tried by God and their country." 

If these are the "claims," Avhich you say are not "founded 
in truth," I ask you and the reader where are they made? Is 
it in the constitution of the society that it ^^ professes to be no-t 
merely a remedy for slavery but the only one ?" — let us see. 

EXTRACT from THE CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZA- 
TION SOCIETY. 

" Art. I. This Society shall be called the American Society 
for colonizing the free people of colour of the United States. 

" Art. II. The object to which its attention is to be exclu- 
sively directed, is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing 
(with their consent) the free people of colour residing in our 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. O 

country', in Africa, or such other place as congress shall deem 
most expedient." 

Now it is obvious that this "powerful institution" '''■'pro- 
fesses''' nothing but Avhat is contained in these two articles, and 
that the term '• exclusively," renders it absolutely impossible 
that it should '■'profess to be a remedy for slavery, much less 
the only one." I would ask you then, sir, on what authority 
you make this allegation against the Colonization Society, and 
whether you are not here convicted of the precise accusation 
you bring on p. 147, against the Hon. Mr. Frelinghuysen, 
Chancellor Walworth, and David B. Ogden, Esq., by " not 
scrupling to hold up your fellow citizens and fellow Christian? 
to the indignation of the public, on charges destitute of all 
specifica.tion, and unsupported by a particle of testimony ?" 

I need not tell you, that it is utterly absurd to suppose thai 
your allegation can have any foundation in truth. Who would 
believe a society, '■'■ professing to be a remedy for slavery.' 
and yet defining their exclusive object to be the " colonizing 
the free people of colour." Still more absurd and ridiculous 
would be the profession of being the '■^ only one that can be 
devisedJ' What arrogance would this imply, in any society, 
or even " powerful institution," who should " profess" that no 
remedy "caji be devised" but theirs, and especially when theii 
constitution distinctly demonstrates that it professes exclu- 
sively a different object. And as I shall have occasion tc 
show,, you have yourself reprobated the society, for not devia- 
ting, from its exclusive object. It is no vindication for this 
misrepresentation to allege, that some one or more of the 
friends of the society have regarded it in either of these lights, 
for your charge is distinctly that the society makes this pro- 
fession^ and this, as a friend of the society and in defence of 
the truthj I deny.* 

But the next sentence in the same paragraph contains an 

* In the language of another, we might repeat, " It is not a Mis- 
sionary Society, — nor a, society for th€ suppression of the slave trade, 
—-nor a society for the improvement of the blacks,— nor a .society /o^- 
the abolition of slavenj ;—h\\i it is simply a society for establishmg a 
colony on the coast of Africa; and so far as any of" these other objects 
are aUained by its efforts, they must be attained either as the means 
or as the consequences of establishing that colonv.' Did llie society 
2.* ■ ' 



LETTERS TO THE 



equally egregious blunder, occurring, like the former, undoubted- 
ly, from "want of information." This " powerful institution," 
you say, " appeals to religion and patriotism for those" pecu- 
niary aids, which it contends are alone wanting, to enable it 
" to transport our whole coloured population to Africa^'''' &c. 
Now I would respectfully ask for the evidence on which you 
make this statement. Is it in the constitution, or in the An- 
nual Reports of the managers ? Does not the constitution 
give it a palpable contradiction? Are "our whole coloured po- 
pulation" '•'■free persons of colour?" And if they were, do they 
all give their ^^ consent" to go to Africa? How then could 
the Colonization Society " contend," that money " alone'"' is 
wanting, to " transport our whole coloured population," when 
over two millions of them are slaves^ which they do not trans- 
port, and nine tenths of the free withhold " their consent^'''' and 
therefore could not be colonized? But even if all were free, 
and all consented to go, I ask, where is the evidence that the 
society " contends" that even then, money " alone is wanting 
to enable it to transport our whole coloured population?" 

It is to just such misrepresentations, and misapprehensions 
arising from "want of information," or erroneous information, 
that the lamented Wilberforce* withdrew his confidence from 
the cause ; and to the same source is it to be ascribed, if, as 
you say, the American Colonization Society "is regarded with 
abhorrence by almost the whole religious community of Great 
Britain." When such a man as Wm. Lloyd Garrison was sent 
to England, mainb/ on the errand of denouncing the motives, 
character, and tendieney of the society, and Avhen even a Brit- 
ish philanthropist, in rebuking him for vilifying his country, 
was constrained to say, " Mr. Garrison distorts meanings^ — 
fastens the speeches of individuals on the society, — quotes 
partially^ — conceals explanations, — exaggerates^ — clamours^ 

ever " profess to be a remedy for slavery and the only one "?" I sub- 
mit to Mr. Jay whether he has not here overlooked the ninth c^rrir- 
irumdment of the decalogue. Let reason and conscience answer. 

* Dr. Hodgkin, of London, in his able pamphlet, says, that "Wil- 
berforce continued to avow his approbation of the American Coloni- 
zation Society, notwithstanding the attacks and insinuations of its 
adversaries, until near the period of his lamented death, when the 
expartc statements of those who Imew the importance of his authority 
obtained a triumph, the achievement of which confers no honour." 



HON. WILLIAJVI JAY. 7 

— and cants,^^ what could be expected other than that just so far 
as he was believed in Great Britain, the society and the nation 
would be viewed with " abhorrence ?" His pamphlet contained 
ten specific accusations against the society, most heinous and 
anti-Christian in their nature ; and although the society and its 
friends plead not guilty to each of them, and have continued to 
the present, '• solemnly" to pronounce their author to be a ca- 
lumniator, yet I regret to perceive, that the most of these offen- 
ces are alleged against the society in your book, and in some 
instances fortified by quotations even from Garrison himself ! 
But suffer me to adopt your own language, and ask, " What 
proof is offered ? Nothing, absolutely nothing is offered, but 
naked assertion. Is this equitable ? Is it doing to others as 
you would wish others to do to you ?" 

I shall, in my next letter, notice the first chapter in your 
book, and I regret to say, that it abounds in exceptionable and 
erroneous matter no less than your brief introduction, and be- 
lieve me, my animadversions upon your " inquiry,"' are offered 
"more in sorrow than in anger,'* and you must not account me 
an enemy because I tell you the truth.. 

With due respect, 

Yours. &c. 



LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER II. 

Sir, 



Your first chapter, on tlie "Origin, Constitution and Charac- 
ter of the American Colonization Society," will be the subject 
of the present letter.. And I cannot Avithhold the expression of 
my regret, that your deplorable " want of information" has led 
you into an error, for which, I am sure, your own candid recon- 
sideration of your book, will inspire you with repentance, how- 
ever unavailing it may be, in respect to the influence it has al- 
ready exerted, and will continue to exert, wherever it is read. 
I allude now to the obvious attempt you make to connect a 
" resolution of the Legislature of Virginia," with the " origin'''' 
of the American Colonization Society. Your object is so obvi- 
ously to identify the organization of the society with slavery 
and slaveholders, that you connect these two events, which you 
ought to know, have no more kindred relation, than your own 
book has with either of them. The coincidence in the date of 
the Virginia resolution, 23d December, 1816,* and that of the 
organization of the American Colonization Society, is obvious- 
ly pointed at, Avhen you say, " Avithin afeuc days of the date 
of this resolution, a meeting was held at Washington, to take 
this very subject into consideration. It was composed almost 

* It is singularly unfortunate for Mr. Jay's object^ that the meeting 
held in Washington, "within a few days" of this date, " to take thi^ 
very subject into consideration," had the priority in point of time, to 
the Virginia resolution, for it was held on the 21st of December, 1816, 
two days before that resolution, and not, as erroneously insinuated, 
ofler it. If then he had been willing to express the truth chronologi- 
cally, he would have first related the meeting of the " slaveholders" 
in Washington, and then the sithsequent resolution of the Virginia 
Legislature, as occurring '^within, a fcio dai/s of the date'^of the former. 
But this would have reversed the impression designed to be made 
upon the reader's mind, yet the truth required it. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 



entirely of soidhern gentlemen ;^^ and after naming Judge 
Washington, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Randolph, you say, the meet- 
ing " resulted in the organization of the American Coloniza- 
tion Society !" Such disingenuousness and uncandid distortion 
of facts, especially with the design of attributing the origin of 
the society to the Virginia resolution referred to, was hardly 
to be expected from such a man as Mr. Jay. 

But who would imagine, that you could have professed to give 
the ^^ origin of the American Colonization Society," and yet, 
never mention the name of its illustrious and excellent founder ? 
This were to betray as great "want of information" as a man 
would exhibit, if he were to pretend to w^ite the history of his 
country, and never once name the "father of his country." And 
yet, such is the attitude in which you have been placed by the 
"bad advisers" into whose hands you have unhappily fallen. 
Even Garrison ! pronounces the name of Robert Finlay with re- 
spect and veneration, and declares him and many of his followers 
to be " men of piety, benevolence, and moral worth." Indeed, in 
the crusade he has been prosecuting agamst the society, when 
he speaks of " those u-ho planned the American Colonization 
Society," he has a " lucid interval to his madness," and is 
constrained by reason or conscience, to say, that " some ot 
them, tindovMedIy,v>'ere actuated by a benevolent desire to pro- 
mote the xcelfare of our coloured popidation^ and could never 
have intended to countenance oppression !" But alas, we 
look to your book in vain for any other name in connexion 
with the " origin" of this scheme of philanthropy but those oi 
" slaveholders," or those whom you stigmatize with this epithet. 
Let me ask, is this fair ? Is it candid ? Is this an exemplifica- 
tion of the " golden rule ?" Because that holy man, Robert 
Finlay, the founder of the society, and his devoted companions, 
in this " work of faith," the excellent Caldwell, and the pious 
Mills, — because these were not " slaveholders,'''' you carefully 
omit to mention their names, in your professed history of the 
" origin" of the society ; while other names are repeated for 
this single reason, that they were slaveholders. I charitably 
hope, that your " want of information" may prove a sufficient 
apology to your conscience and your God. 

You next quote the first two articles of the constitution. 



10 LETTERS TO THE 

against which yovi protest, because you allege the want of a 
^^preomble, setting forth the motives which led to its adoption, 
and the sentiments entertained by its authors." Has the Ame- 
rican Bible Society any such preamble to its constitution? or 
has that of the Ameri<Jan Anti-Slavery Society, which you so 
zealously advocate ? The '^ motrves and sent iments^^ of the 
authors, are explicitly declared in the constitution itself, in all 
these societies, and " the want of a preamble" is an objection 
which has as much force against the one as the other of 
them. Indeed, the method of prefixmg a "preamble" to con- 
stitutions, is now, for the most part, obsolete, and is very rarely 
adopted any where. This objection, then, is entirely unfound- 
ed, though you most uncharitabl}'- attribute the " omission of 
all avowal of motives to design.'''' 

The effect which you allege, as produced by this designed 
(Tinission, is that of " securing the co-operation of three class- 
es," whom you designate as benevolent men, interested slave- 
holders, and cruel persecutors, and you affirm that, " there is no 
one principle of duty or policy,''^ recognised by the constitu- 
tion. HoAV you could make this assertion in the face of the 
two articles you quote, is indeed " passing strange." Is not 
" promoting and executing a plan for colonizing the free people 
of colour^ one " principle of duty ?" and is not another principle 
of duty found in the word "exclusively" in relation to the sin- 
gle object, and still another, in the words "with their consent," 
which is tantamount to an assurance, that " forcible expatria- 
tion" can never receive the countenance of the society. And 
is there " no one principle of policy'''' in the reference to " Afri- 
ca, or such other place as congress shall deem most expedi- 
ent,'''' and " in co-operation with the general government and 
such of the states as may adopt regulations on the subject ?" 
These are the "motives and sentinn-ents" of the society, as 
avowed in their constitution, and in precisely the location in 
which a similar avowal of other "motives and sentiments" is 
found in the constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 
viz. in the second article^ and not in the "preamble," for there 
is none in either. 

As to the " heterogeneous multitude who have entered the 
Colonization Society, because its doors are thrown open to all," 



HON. WILUAM JAY. 'M. 

the only difference consists in the fact, that in the Anti-Slavery 
Society, slaveholders are excluded. This exclusion is, how- 
ever, more nominal than real ; for, though slaveholders are pro- 
hibited from becoming members, yet slave-traders are not, if 
they " consent to the principles of the constitution, and contri- 
bute to the funds." I say nothing of the incongruity of form- 
ing a society professedly against slavery, and yet excluding 
from its portals the only persons who can practise abolition. 
For even if a slaveholder consents to the principles of the con- 
stitution, and pays to the funds, yet he cannot be a member of 
the society, however anxious to get rid of his slaves, until the 
Colonization Society first transport his slaves to Liberia, and 
thus render him eligible for membership in the Anti-Slavery 
Society. If a moiety of the sums expended upon Anti-Slavery 
agents, and in the support of the Anti-Slavery press, were paid 
over to the treasury of the American Colonization Society, they 
would render very many benevolent and pious slaveholders eli- 
gible to membership, who for want of it, will probably never 
be able to obtain admission, nor cease to be slaveholders. 

But your next complaint against the constitution, is, that so 
great a variety of characters, influenced by an equal variety of 
motives, good and bad, leads to " a lamentable compromise of 
principle," To show that this is what logicians call a 7W}i sequi- 
tur, it will only be necessary to refer to the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, an institution whose principles and practice 
challenge the admiration of the world. Its ^^ single object" is 
the " circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or com- 
ment." It makes no requisition of " motives or sentiments" in 
" a preamble," nor does it require any test of membership, for 
every slaveholder on the earth may be a member. It contains 
as great an " amalgamation of characters and motives," and 
" the doors of the society being thrown opeii to all, a hetero- 
geneous multitude has entered, and within its portals, men are 
brought into contact, who, in the ordinary walks of life, are se- 
parated by a common repulsion." In short, all that you say in 
this strain, against the American Colonization Society, lies 
with equal force against that great and good institution, the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. But would you thence al- 
lege, a " lamentable compromise of principle." Because Cal- 



12 LETTERS TO THE 

vinists and Arminians, Paedo Baptists, and Anti-Paedo Baptists, 
High Church and Low Church, Trinitarians and Unitarians, 
Orthodox and Heterodox, a " heterogeneous multitude," have 
entered its portals, and agreed to unite in the " single objecf 
of the society, however they may be " separated by a com- 
mon repulsion" on all other subjects, — would you be found in 
league with Irving and others, in denouncing that noble enter- 
prise of human benevolence, the extent of whose usefulness is 
by this very " heterogeneousness," tenfold greater than it could 
otherwise be ? Your avowed attachment to the American Bi- 
ble Society, founded on similar piinciples, forbids the suppo- 
sition, and yet you are yourself associated in that society with 
slaveholders by the thousand. 

But I have said, that you reprobate the society because of its 
exclusive character, as appears in this chapter, in which you 
complain, that " the constitution contains no allusion to 
slavery." How then did you charge it with " professing to be 
a remedy for slavery." If this charge were true, you might 
justly complain, that " its constitution contains no allusion to 
slavery," for this would indeed involve an inconsistency. As 
it is, however, this fact is in itself a refutation of all you have 
said on this subject. 

Your assertion, that the silence of the constitution with re- 
spect to manumission, "is not permitted to interpose the slight- 
est obstacle to a unanimous^ vigorous, and persevering oppo- 
sition to present manumission," is entirely destitute of proof, 
and that the American Colonization Society either " deprecates 
the emancipation of slaves, or censures all who propose it," is 
palpably in contravention of multiplied facts, of some of which, 
your own book furnishes the evidence, as I shall hereafter have 
occasion to demonstrate. The tirade here indulged in, to show 
that it is constitutional to denounce the foreign traffic, and de- 
clare it piratical, and at the same time unconstitutional^ to con- 
demn the domestic slave trade, or labour for its suppression ; — 
and the illiberal insinuation, that these inconsistencies are " ex- 
pedients to conciliate the slaveholders," will also be noticed in 
a subsequent letter. 

With due respect. 

Yours, &c. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 13 



LETTER III. 

Sir, 

The following parEigraph in your book, I regard as one of 
the most extraordinary examples of " at least doubtful mo- 
rality," to use your own language, that I have ever seen from 
the pen of a good man, and it is one which calls for a specific 
examination. 

" To hold up the free blacks to the detestation of the com- 
munity is constitutional ! — ^^to recommend them to the sym- 
pathy of Christians, to propose scJwols for their instruction, 
plans for encouraging their industry, and efforts for their 
moral and religious improvement, would be such a flagrant 
departure from the 'exclusive' object of the society, that no 
MEMBER has hitherto been rash enough to make the attempt ! 
At the same time, it is quite constitutional to vindicate the 
cruel laws which are crushing these people to the dust, and to 
show that the oppression they suffer is an ' ordination of 
providence.' " 

As a number of these statements will come up in another 
form as we proceed, I will at present only offer my remon- 
strance against the strange and unaccountable asseveration, 
that " no member of the Colonization Society has hitherto 
been rash enough to make the attempt to propose schools for 
the instruction, plans for the encouragement of the industry, 
or efforts for the moral and religious improvement of the free 
blacks .'" And now, sir, allow me to ask you whether you do 
not know, that until two or three years ago, the efforts made, 
plans proposed, and schools sustained, for the benefit of the 
free blacks in every part of the United States, were for the 
most part, the result of the personal exertions and liberality of 
members of the Colonization Society ? Who are the men who 
have borne the burden and heat of the day, in the various 
Manumission Societies in Pennsylvania, New-York, New- 
3 



14 LETTERS TO THE 

Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, even when 
the most of these were slave states ? Are they not the 
men, in numerous instances, at least, who are members and 
friends of the Colonization Society ? Are there not eight free 
manumission schools in the city of New-York alone, which 
have chiefly been sustained by colonizationists ? Who has 
built, purchased, and sustained churches for the " moral and re- 
ligious improvement of the free blacks" in every part of this 
country ? Let this investigation be made, and you will be 
ashamed of the injustice you have unwittingly done to the 
members of the Colonization Society. 

I might here refer you to the numerous day and Sunday 
schools for the free blacks, which colonizationists have organized 
and conducted, many of which are now in successful operation, 
md some of which have been broken up by the benevolent eflbrts 
of the anti-slavery people, in creating prejudice against teachers, 
lifter years of devotion to the best interests of these people, by 
denouncing them to their scholars, as members of the Coloni- 
zation Society, and, therefore, " wolves in 'sheep's clothing."* 

But suffer me to refer you to the recent purchase of the Presby- 

* A striking illustration exists in New-York, in the history of a 
Sabbath school for coloured people, adults and children, under the 
patronage of the Rev. Dr. Milnor, of this city, and superintended for 
a number of years by Mr. Taylor. In this school, numbering be- 
tween three and four hundred scholars, many have been taught to 
read, some in advanced life, and the moral and religious improve- 
ment of the scholars was most gratifying to the friends of humanity, 
and until the introduction of the Anti-Slavery mania, its prosperity 
and success continued without interruption. But during the last year, 
it was ascertained that the superintendant would not join the Anti- 
Slavery Society, and it was therefore concluded, de facto, by some of 
its members, that he was a colonizationist, although he has never be- 
come a member of any Colonization Society. Nevertheless, as he 
did not become an anti-colonizationisl, and declined having that 
subject introduced into his Sabbath school, the most diligent and 
persevering efforts were used by the abolitionists to alienate the 
scholars, and estrange their confidence from the school and its inde- 
fg,tigable teachers, whose practical benevolence had been demonstrated 
by years of faithful devotion to this work. The result of such bene- 
volent efforts has been seen, in the diminution of the number of scho- 
lars from 400 to 40 or 50, and the persecution of those who remain. 
The bitter and uncompromising opposition to this school, has probably 
arisen from the fact that the Rev. Dr. Milnor, the pastor of the church 
by whom it is sustained, is an officer of the city Colonization Society. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 15 

terian church in Frankfort-street, New-York, occupied by a 
congregation of free blacks, under the pastoral care of the Rev. 
Mr. Wright. When the Committee of the " New-York Pres- 
bytery,'' went through the city, soliciting donations for this laud- 
able object, begging from door to door, until they obtained be- 
tween nine and twelve thousand dollars ; who were the men 
whose subscriptions of from one to five hundred dollars, gave 
evidence of their interest in the moral and religious improve- 
ment of these people ? I answer, they were, with scarcely an in- 
dividual exception, members and friends of the Colonization 
Society. Your friend and fellow labourer, the Rev. Dr. Cox, 
then a colonizationist, was one of the committee at first, though 
his anti-slavery occupations, since his conversion to that creed, 
have rendered it inconvenient to continue to act with the com- 
mittee. He can tell you, however, if he has not forgotten it, 
who were the men, Avho refused to contribute to this scheme of 
benevolence, and excused themselves on the anti-slavery pre- 
text, that they disapproved of providing separate places of wor- 
ship for the " free blacks," lest it should foster prejudice, and 
insisted that they ought to be provided for in our own churches. 
"^without distinction of colour?'' 

The subscription book may yet be seen, and you- would be 
constrained after examining it, for yourself, to retract your 
cruelly unjust accusation, that "no member of the Coloniza- 
tion Society" has attempted " efforts for the moral and reli- 
gious improvement of the' free blacks," if conscience and duty 
did not compel you to render restitution to those, whose names 
and memory you have thus rudely assailed. Let me not be 
understood to impugn your motives, or impeach your sincerity, 
but only to allege your lamentable " want of information" as 
the obvious cause of your mistakes. 

From such erroneous opinions as your recent associations 
have led you to form, and the perverted vieAvs you have thence 
taken of this whole subject, it is no marvel that your zeal 
should be enkindled against a society whose principles and 
practice you have so grievously misunderstood. Hence you 
deliberately charge upon "good men and good Christians" the 
" adoption of expediency^ as the standard of right and wrong,, 



16 LETTERS TO THE 

in the place of the revealed will of God..' — '■'' opinions and 
■practices inconsistent vfiih. justice and humanity /" and under 
the demoralizing injiuence " of colonization," you allege 
against these " good men and good Christians" that they 
" advance in its behalf opinions at variance with truth and 
Christianity !" Truly you are constrained to admit, that " these 
are grave assertions, and very extraordinary ones !" and our 
readers will see in the sequel what proof you present in the 
form of " authentic facts." It must be obvious, however, to 
yourself, that in this your " general statement of the case 
against the society," you have included in your indictment so 
many counts that impeach the integrity of its members, that 
if a moiety of them be substantiated, so far from being "good 
men and good Christians," they are, en masse, worthy of the 
reprobation of every friend of humanity, " fellows not fit to 
live." 

And now, sir, these " grave assertions and very extraordi- 
nary ones," as you admit them to be, involve the personal and 
Christian character of men, distinguished at home and abroad 
for their station, reputation, and usefulness. The gentlemen 
whose names you unceremoniously introduce into your book, 
are not only regarded as Christian gentlemen, but many of 
them as Christian divines, whose estimable character and pri- 
vate worth, has made them known and respected in every part 
of our own country, and equally so in every Christian nation 
on the earth. And yet, against these men, your book alleges 
not merely a " lamentable compromise of principle," but you 
ascribe to them the attributes of " stupidity," •' ignorance," 
"prejudice," "inconsistency," "persecution," "cruelty," " in- 
humanity," "duplicity," and opinions and practice "at vari- 
ance with truth and Christianity." You represent the Hon. 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, Chancellor Walworth, David B. 
Ogden, Esq., Right Rev. Dr. Hawks, the venerable Bishop 
White, Rev. Dr. Beecher, and all others among the respectable 
divines, statesmen, patriots, and Christians, who belong to the 
Colonization Society, as men utterly unworthy of the affection 
or confidence of the "friends of humanity and religion," and 
you call upon such for " Wivelenting hostility" against them 
and the cause with which they are identified. 



HON. WILLIAIVI JAY. 17 

Wherever your book shall go, its readers will be prepared, if 
they believe your accusations, to look upon these excellent 
men, with loathing and '' abhorrence," and these American 
divines and Christians, when they visit England or France, as 
the agents of the churches, and the representatives of our bene- 
volent institutions, will be viewed, so far as your testimony can 
produce this effect, as the abettors of a system of " abomina- 
ble persecution." And the responsibility for all this "obloquy 
and reproach" being poured upon "good men and good Chris- 
tians," as you. inconsistently call them, you have voluntarily 
assumed. Where they are known, they are shielded from all 
your shafts, by their established integrity ; and I need not tell 
you, that pure and exalted as your own character is admitted to 
be at home, these gentlemen, whom you assail, are in even- 
respect your equals in the estimation of the Christian public, 
for all that is " lovely and of gpod report," and that the en- 
dorsement of your name to this attack upon their reputations, 
will be utterly insufficient to stain their characters, or abstract 
irom. them any measure of the public confidence. But at a dis- 
tance from home, in our own and other countries, the accusa- 
tions of your book cannot but inflict upon these your " Chris- 
tian brethren" unmerited injuries, which you can never repair, 
and wounds, which you can never heal. If this consideration 
can afford you consolation, either living or dying, you are wel- 
come to its exclusive enjoyment. 

I propose to continue my correspondence until I shall 
examine the whole of the " special pleading," which you have 
thought necessary in the case. To each and every one of 
your charges, the society and its friends plead ^'' 7iot guilti/.'^ 
and as we are now before the American people, and you and I 
are members of that bar, and engaged as opposite counsel, 
though volunteers in the case, I shall submit to the court and 
jury a brief analysis of the evidence you present, and claim the 
verdict which reason and conscience shall approve. In one 
respect, I may, without arrogance, lay claim to stand on equal 
footing with yourself. I mean, in the honest conviction that 
my client, the American Colonization Society, is innocent of 
the crimes and high misdemeanours, for which you have drawn 
the indictment. And while I award to vouan equal conscien- 
2* 



1-8 LETTERS TO THE 

tiousness in conducting the prosecution, and a full persuasion 
that my client is guilty and ought to be condemned, I shall 
submit the case to God and my country, and personating my 
client, I would exclaim with the great Apostle of the Gentiles, 
" If I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of 
death, I refuse not to die." 

With due respect, 

Yours, &c. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 19 



LETTER IV. 

Sir, 

^ouR second chapter will constitute the subject of the pre- 
sent letter, and although it is extended through 38 pages of 
your book, yet there is so much of irrelevant and technical mat- 
ter contained in it, that I shall purposely decline any very 
minute or detailed controversy, except in reference to a few 
points directly bearing on the subject. 

After denying that there is any thing necessarily benevolent 
in the exclusive object of colonizing the free people of colour 
with their own consent, you charge upon the society, " the 
policy of aggravating prejudice against the free blacks," and 
with using " unchristian language in regard to this unhappy 
and oppressed portion of their fellow men." To sustain this 
heinous allegation, a number of extracts are given from 
speeches delivered by friends of the society, and other printed 
documents. As in my subsequent letters, I may have occasion 
to apply the lex talionis, to the society you represent, I shall 
waive the legitimate objection often made by the society, 
against being held responsible for the sentiments held or ex- 
pressed by its real or supposed friends. These may be injudi- 
cious and often erroneous, and according to no honest rules of 
testimony can any body of men be held accountable for every 
expression used by its individual members, and especially 
when detached and dismembered sentences are selected, often 
without accompanying qualifications, which essentially modify 
and even change the speaker's meaning. Bat admitting that 
the extracts you make do prove, as you design, that their authors 
"aggravate the prejudice against the free blacks," even by the 
use of "unchristian language," it is only necessary for me to 
prove by the same kind of evidence, that other and opposite 
sentiments are held and expressed in a ditferent spirit, and it 
will then be in proof, that the society is as uiuch represented in 



20 LETTERS TO THE 

the one case as the other; that is, responsible for neither. 
Whenever a speaker or writer introduces any sentiment other 
than in favour of the exclusive object of " colonizing the free peo- 
ple of colour with their own consent," he alone is responsible, and 
not the society whose cause he advocates. A Unitarian will ad- 
vocate the distribution of the Bible, with the avowed motive to 
propagate his doctrines ; so also will a Universalist, a Baptist, a 
Calvinist, an Arminian, and each will urge upon his congrega- 
tion the duly of promoting the circulation of the Scriptures, for the 
purpose of advancing the doctrines of his particular sect. But 
did you ever dream that the Bible Society was accountable for 
the varied and even opposite arguments of its professed friends. 
But an attempt to prove the American Bible Society to be a 
Unitarian Society, because those who deny the divinity of 
Christ, profess to expect their doctrines to be propagated by the 
circulation of " the Scriptures without note or comment," 
would not be more preposterous, than to argue that the Ameri- 
can Colonization Society is unchristian, because "unchristian 
language" may have been used by some of its friends. All that 
would be necessary to vindicate the Bible Society in the case 
supposed, would be to show, that " Trinitarians" employed op- 
posite sentiments and arguments m behalf of the society ; — and 
I shall now proceed to show that other friends of colonization 
have entertained and expressed essentially different language 
and sentiments from those you have presented. And first let 
me refer you to one of the resolutions adopted at the annual 
meeting in January, 1833. 

Resolved, that the free people of colour throughout the 
United States, be assured, that this society had its origin in the 
most henevolent desires towards them; that its object is to pro- 
mote their happiness and usefulness ;. and that it believes this 
can best be clone by gradually separating them (oeifA their oxen 
consent) from the white race, and establishing them in a situa- 
tion where they may enjoy those privileges to which they are 
entitled by nature and their Creator^'s tviil." 16th Annual 
Report. 

Is this calculated to '■'• aggravate prejudiceV 
" We should direct our efforts to the improvement of our 
coloured population more than we have done, and thus fit them 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 21 

for the responsible duties of colonists among, the pagans of their 
colour." " I know the history of the cause of colonization, it 
originated in the best and purest motives." Rev. Gardiner 
Springy D. D. 

Is this unchristian language ? 

The cause of colonization is the safest, truest, and most effi- 
cient auxiliary of freedom, " under existing circicmstaiices.^^ 
Constitution of Maryland in Liberia. 

" It is the opinion of this body that African colonization is 
eminently calculated to benefit a long persecuted^ and deeply 
injured- race, by furnishing to the free people of colour an op- 
portunity to escape from the oppression which they suffer in 
this country," &c. Resol. Gen. Assem. Presh. ch. Alay, 1S32. 

" That the colonization of the people of colour of the United 
States on the coast of Africa, will not only promote their own 
temporal //'eecZo??i and happiness, but tend to their moral im- 
provement,''' &c. Address of Maryland State Col. Society. 

Now in these several quotations it will be seen that coloni- 
zationists speak and write without " unchristian language," and 
discover no " policy of aggravating prejudice against the free 
blacks." So far from this, the society and its friends commis- 
serate the depressed condition of this class, lament the extent of 
that prejudice, Avhich under present circumstances forbid all 
hope of their elevation, and advocate the cause from a benevo- 
lent desire to promote their happiness and usefulness. How 
mistaken then is your declaration, that " the society excuses 
and justifies the oppression of the free negroes, and the preju- 
dices against them" p. 17. It is true you have found some 
detached sentences of speeches and other publications by colo- 
nizationists, which are made to have the semblance of such ten- 
dency, though some of the authors would protest against this 
use made of their words, as doing them injustice. They have 
stated the depressed condition of the free people of colour, in 
slaveholding and non-slaveholding states, in strong language, 
and represented the unconquered and unconquerable nature of 
that prejudice which perpetuates their depression. But not one, 
even among those whom you have quoted, either " excuses or 
justifies it," — and I marvel greatly that you should give your 
name to such a charge without other and better evidence. In- 



22 - LETTERS TO THE 

deed your extract from the Address of the Connecticut Colom- 
zation Society is most unfairly made, for you leave out the fol- 
lowing sentence, which is part of the same paragraph you em- 
ploy, and proves that neither " excuse nor justification" is at- 
tempted. The address speaks of " things as they are and not 
as they mighty or ought to 6e," and hence uses the following 
language, in direct connexion with what you have quoted, and 
which any reader will see, essentially varies its meaning, and 
contradicts your interpretation. 

" The African in this country belongs by birth to the very 
lowest station in society : and from that station he can never 
rise, be his talents, his enterprise, his virtues, what they may. 
They [the free negroes] constitute a class by themselves, a 
class out of which no individual can he elevated^ and below 
which none can be depressed. And this is the difficulty^ the 
invariable and insuperable difficulty, m the way of every 
scheme for their benefit. Much can be done for them — much 
has been done, but still they are, and in this country always 
must be, a depressed and abject race.^^ And hence " it is 
taken for granted that in prese7it circumstances, any effort to 
produce a general and thorough amelioration in the character 
and condition of the free people of colour, must be to a great 
extent, fruitless. In every part of the United States there is a 
broad and impassable line of demarcation between every man 
who has one drop of African blood in his veins and every other 
class in the community." 

T put it to your candour, sir, whether these sentiments, in 
their original connexion with the extract you have dismem- 
bered, either excuse or justify the oppression and prejudice to 
the existence of which they attest. I take it for granted that 
you admit the truth of the description here given, for the com- 
plaints in your own book against " oppression and prejudice" 
are all unfounded, unless all that is here stated is true. And 
Its truth being established, this " narrative of facts" on the side 
of colonization, is not more justly chargeable than is your own, 
with the guilt of " excusing or justifying it." 

But you next assert, that " the society discourages all at- 
tempts to improve the condition of the free blacks." Allow 
me again to lament the deplorable " want of information" 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 23 

which has led you to a repetition of this often refuted calumny. 
The quotations you make are utterly irrelevant ; and in signal 
refutation of all you have written to sustain your position, I in- 
vite your attention to the following. 

" Colonization tends to improve the character and elevate 
the condition of the free people of colour, and thus to take away 
one standing and very influential argument against individual 
emancipation and general abolition." " Elevate the character 
of the free people of colour, — let it be seen that they are men 
indeed — let the degrading associations which follow them he 
broken up by the actual improvement of their character as a 
people, and negro slavery must rapidly wither and die." Chris- 
tian Spectator, a " religious colonization paper." 

The following extract, in point, is from the same journal. 
" The success of colonization will not only bless the colonists, 
but will react to elevate the standing of those who remain he- 
hind ; and from beyond the Atlantic there will come a light to 
beam upon the degradation of the negroes in America?'' 

Such are the expressed designs of colonizationists, and not a 
shadow of testimony is, or can be furnished, that the society or 
its distinguished members, have ever " discouraged attempts to 
improve the condition of the free blacks." 

The most imposing evidence which this chapter contains, is 
in your strictures upon the case of Miss Crandall, and her far 
famed " Canterbury School," the " Black Act of Connecticut." 
and the " charge of Judge Dagget" of that state. As these 
matters are entirely irrelevant, I shall not discuss them here, 
since neither are directly or indirectly connected with the Co- 
lonization Society, as every reader will perceive, notwithstand- 
ing your laboured attempt to impute them all to the society, 
and its friends. In the name of colonization I utterly repel the 
insinuation, that these difficulties in Connecticut originated in 
the doctrines or measures of the American Colonization So- 
ciety, nor would any of them have occurred, had the Anti- Sla- 
very Society never existed. They afford abundant confirmation, 
however, of the existence of the " prejudice and oppression" 
which the society deplore while they record, and demonstrate 
that the statements of the Colonization Society in relation to 



24 LETTERS TO THE 

the invincible character of this prejudice are neither misrepre- 
sented nor overrated. 

Forgive me, sir, when I say that your laboured attempt to 
identify the laws of the slave states, and the recent commotions 
in the non-slaveholding states with the Colonization Society, af- 
ford ample and melancholy demonstration of your own senti- 
ment expressed on your 46th page, that " even good men are 
subject to erroneous opinions and tmicarrantable prejudices." 
In my next I shall notice the subject of " compulsory emigra- 
tion." 

With due respect, 

Yours, &c. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 96 



LETTER V. 

Sir, 

The running title of your book for several pages is, " Com- 
pulsory Emigration." This charge you bring against the so- 
ciety was hardly to be expected, when their constitution which 
you quote is so explicit in its contradiction. But it is in vain 
that the society points to the " second article," in which it is 
distinctly avowed that it will colonize the free people of colour 
only with their own consent^ and that this is its object, " ex- 
clusively" its only object. You even ridicule this provision, by 
denominating the phrase " their own consent," three talismanic 
words ! and you call the constitutional argument which the 
society urges on these words, a specious one, and allege that 
the society " transports negroes whose consent^ they well know 
has been extorted from them by the most abominable persecu- 
tion !" 

And what is the proof you offer ? Let us see. 

The slave states, you say, " oppress these people, and keep 
them in ignorance and degradation." And pray, is the Coloni- 
zation Society to be held responsible for the acts of the several 
state legislatures, most of which were passed before the society 
was in being? On what principle of justice or equity can you 
make this appear? Surely it is not sufficient to show that these 
same legislatures have passed resolutions approving of the so- 
ciety, and its objects. But nevertheless on such evidence 
alone, you do attempt to convict the society of violating their 
constitution by " compulsory emigration." Not merely the 
laws which each state in its sovereign capacity sees fit to 
adopt, and the decisions of their courts, but even the speeches 
of members in the several houses of delegates, are all charged 
upon the " benevolent colonization system," and you go so far 
as to affirm that " all look to the Colonization Society as the in- 
4 



26 LETTERS TO THE 

strument, by which the forcible expulsion of the free negroes 
is to be effected !" and you add, " Nor do they look in vain !" - 

And here in your own language, page 28, I am constrain- 
ed to say, " there are occasions on which it is treason to 
truth and honour, if not to religion, to suppress our indigna- 
tion," nor can I shrink from the expression of my opinion, that 
your "unwarrantable prejudices" have led you to a course "in- 
consistent with either truth or Christianity." I shall not refer 
to the cruelty and injustice of reprobating the society for the 
circumstances which followed the Southampton massacre, and 
the censure attempted to be fixed on the society for removing 
those who begged for a passage to Liberia, to escape from the 
inhumanity of their relentless persecutors, goaded to unwonted 
violence by the scenes of blood they had witnessed, but I will 
proceed to prove from official documents, that it is not true that 
the Colonization Society ever countenanced or encouraged 
coercion, but has rigidly and universally disclaimed, from the 
beginning, all " compulsory emigration." Let the reader look 
at the following conclusive evidence on this point. 

" They [the society] do not intend, and they have not the 
inclination, if they possessed the power, to constrain the de- 
parture of any free man of colour from America." JTiird An- 
nual Report. 

" Nathaniel Paul, an intelligent and well informed North 
American of colour, who is decidedly opposed to the Coloniza- 
tion Society, does not attempt to press this accusation, as 
believed, either by himself or his brethren. He only states 
their /ears that coercion may hereafter be resorted to!" Dr. 
Hodgkin's Inquiry. 

" I cannot find in any of the writings of our opponents, the 
slightest attempt at proof that the society has, in any in- 
stance, violated its principle. They do not so much as hint, at 
the occurrence of one example of a coloured individual having 
been conveyed from America to Africa, under the auspices of 
the society, against his own wish." Ibid. 

" But is there nothing good in the American Colonization 
Society ? Yes, there is. For the few coloured people who 
prefer leaving their native country, and emigrating to Africa, 
it is unquestionably a great blessing !" Charles Stewards 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 27 

Letter to the " Herald of Peace." This is the more valuable, 
as the testimony of an implacable enemy of the cause, who 
does not insinuate the charge we are considering. 

In one of the Annual Reports the society officially declares: 

" We disavow and reprobate every coercive measure, we 
discard all restraint, Ave ask no bounties — we solicit 7io com- 
'pulsion by which to produce emigration." 

Such are the proofs which the " Reports," to which you seem 
to have had access, and other documents, furnish in contradic- 
tion of your allegation ; and yet, sir, on the 52d page of your 
book, you say, 

" In sixteen years, 2162 have been sent away, some at first vo- 
luntarily, but many of them through coercion." And is it too 
much to say, that you are bound to sustain your veracity by 
naming the time, place, and persons thus coerced, or to admit 
that you have here transgressed tne ninth commandment. It 
will not do for you to refer to the absurd and unfeeling speech 
*of Mr. Broadnax, in the Virginia House of Delegates, on a bill 
which that body rejected^ — nor to the persecutions subsequent 
to the insurrection of Southampton, for neither of these have 
any, the least connexion with the society. And as it is against 
the society, as such, that you charge "compulsory emigration," 
you are again called upon as in duty bound to sustain, or retract 
it. Let me commend to your sober reflection the sentiment you 
express on the 147th page of your book: as you are yourself of 
" the legal profession, you are aware of the importance of preci- 
sion in all charges of a criminal nature, you would not, sitting 
as a criminal judge, permit the merest vagabond to be put on 
his defence on a vague cliarge of stealing, but would quash any 
indictment that did not specify the time and place of the ofience, 
and the property alleged to be stolen ; yet you do not scruple to 
hold up your fellow citizens and fellow Christians to the indig- 
nation of the public on a charge destitute of all specification, 
and unsupported by a particle of testimony." 

I might here add, you have yourself furnished evidence in re- 
futation of your own accusation, in the extract you make from 
the New-York Colonization Society's Address. " We say to the 
free blacks, we think you may improve your condition by going 
thither, but if you prefer remaining here, you will be protected 



28 LETTERS TO THE 

and treated with kindness," and this you insert under the head 
of " compulsory emigration." It is true you contrast it with 
the language of the same society, when addressing the legisla- 
ture, and attempt to fix upon them the same crime of •' coercing 
their consent to go to Africa," with what consistency every 
reader will judge. 

But you are so indiscriminate in your censoriousness, that you 
quote the language of Mr. Gurley's letter, and pervert a senti- 
ment purely the dictate of humanity, to an " encouragement of 
persecution and barbarity." Mr. Gurley says, " Should they be 
urged by any stress of circumstances, to seek an asylum be- 
yond the limits of the United States, humanity and religion 
will alike dictate that they should be assisted to remove and es- 
tablish themselves in freedom and prosperity in the land of 
their choice /" And pray, sir, is not here an allusion to the case 
you name on a previous page, when this same Mr. Gurley says, 
'• Our friends at Norfolk appealed to us, and said, the people 
were persecuted, and that it was a matter of humanity to take 
them. They were driven from the country, and begged to go 
to Liberia." And yet while you thus denominate this dictate of 
" humanity and religion," by the names of " persecution and 
barbarity," you affirm, that you would have us say to the 
authors of these atrocities, "you shall gain nothing by your 
cruelty, through our instrumentality ; we will not encourage 
your farther persecutions, by removing those whose consent 
you have obtained by such unjustifiable means." Truly this 
would be to 

" Keep the word of promise to the ear 
And break it to the hope." 

Pray what would be the effect on the victims of these " bar- 
barities," if the Colonization Society were to treat them as 
you recommend. Would there be either " humanity or re- 
ligion," under such " a stress of circumstances'''^ as those you 
refer to, in abandoning the poor persecuted people, and refusing 
to deliver them, when they " begged to go to Liberia," and in- 
voked the humanity of their friends to appeal in their behalf. 
Verily, if for the purpose of rebuking these atrocities, your recom- 
mendation were adopted our " tender mercies would be cruelty." 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 29 

I deplore the necessity imposed upon me, thus to bring be- 
fore the reader, so flagrant evidence of " want of information," 
as is furnished on every page of your book but j having under- 
taken this unpleasant task, I must proceed through the whole. 
In my next, I shall notice your 3d chapter. 

With due respect, 

Yours, &c. 



30 LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER VI. 

Sir, 

In your 3d chapter you direct the reader to the influence of 
the society upon Africa in the suppression of the slave-trade. 
Even Charles Stewart, the type of Garrison, and who has been 
imported, for the purpose of vilifying colonization, admits that 
the society " interrupts the African slave-trade within its 
own limits," and adds, that " the least interruption to that nefa- 
rious traffic, is an unspeakable good /" But I regret to find, 
sir, that so far from admitting even this influence of coloniza- 
tion, you accuse the society and its members of " ignora^ice^ 
rash assertio7i, and honest confession" from the " astonishing 
medley" of which, you furnish a few choice specimens. 

I have before reminded you, that the American Colonization 
Society is not a society for the extirpation of slavery, as you 
have mistaken it to be, nor is it a society for the suppression of 
the slave-trade, as you now insinuate ; but I repeat that it is 
simply " a society for establishing a colony on the coast of Af- 
rica." Nevertheless, among other collateral benefits, the influ- 
ence of the colony in the suppression of the slave-trade, is pro- 
ven by testimony, which nothing you have said can impeach. 

The following extracts will show that the intention of the 
society to suppress the African slave-trade has been often de- 
clared. 

" Resolved, That a committee be appointed to memorialize 
the Congress of the United States, requesting that they will 
take such further steps as to their wisdom may seem proper, to 
ensure the entire abolition of the African slave-trade." 3d Re- 
port, 1820. 

" How is this trade to be abolished ? Experience teaches us 
that no law, no treaties stop it, though much more might be 
done. By laws and treaties it is already denounced, and yet 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 



31 



nearly 100,000 slaves are annually taken from Africa, the vic- 
tims of cormorant, never-sated avarice. To suppress this trade, 
it must be made physically impossible. We must line the 
western coast of Africa with civilized settlements," &c. 14th 
Report. 

Your attempt to depreciate the good done by the colony at 
Sierra Leone, can only be attributed to your excessive zeal 
against the whole scheme of colonization, for you must have 
known that multiplied and authentic facts are against you. 

Your own excellent father expresses his opinion in a letter to 
Mr. Wilberforce, on the subject of the "African Institution of 
Great Britain, for promoting civilization and improvement m 
Africa." This institution, as you well know, was founded Avith 
a view to the efficiency and success of the colony at Sierra 
Leone, in suppressing the slave-trade. Mr. John Jay says, of this 
society, " It is pleasing to behold a nation assiduously cultivating 
the arts of peace and humanity in the midst of war, and while 
strenuously fighting for their all, kindly extending the blessings 
of Christianity and civilization to distant countries." 

In Mr. Walsh's Notes of Brazil, vol. ii. p. 286, it is stated, 
that "from 1819 to 1828, a period of nine years, there were 
captured and eTOa?ic?pa^efZ by British vessels stationed at Sierra 
Leone, 13,821 slaves, averaging about 1400 per annum." This 
single fact, which you would scarcely presume to deny, speaks 
volumes in refutation of your attempt to deprive that colony ot 
the merit of contributing to the suppression of the slave-trade, 
which, in that case, was one of the express objects for which 
its benevolent founders established it. That it has effected all 
that is desirable is not pretended by its friends, but so far as it 
has produced this effect, it has been an unspeakable blessicg, 
which it is a burning shame to undervalue, much more to affirm, 
as you do, that it has " actually promoted the slave-trade !" 

In turning your attention to Liberia, however, you seem to 
find still greater satisfaction, in an effort to convince your read- 
ers, that no influence whatever has been exerted on the slave- 
trade by that colony. Is your " want of information" again to 
be received as your apology. I confess, sir, that I am amazed 
at this portion of your book. How came you to suppress the 
facts which must have been known to you, of the industry, zeal, 



32 LETTERS TO THE 

and success, with which the lameuted Ashmun engaged in the 
suppression of the slave-trade in the vicinity of Liberia. Had 
you never read the expedition he undertook against that noto- 
rious slave-mart, Trade Town, in which three vessels were cap- 
tured, 53 slaves, and subsequently 178, were liberated, and the 
establishment destroyed ? Had it pleased Providence to prolong 
his valuable life a few years longer, you would have been 
spared the satisfaction you seem to take, in the failure of his 
purpose to "banish the accursed traffic from the whole line of 
coast comprehended between Cape Montserado and Trade 
Town, both inclusive." For after announcing to the society 
that he had interdicted the trade from that part of the coast, he 
adds, " Our hopes are high that the world is to hear little or 
nothing more of the ravages of this detestable and outlawed 
traffic from this part of the coast." It is true that his sanguine 
hopes were not fully realized, and it is lamentable to learn that 
the society, after having expressed their confidence that the 
traffic would be utterly extinguished on the whole coast, nomi- 
nally included in the colony, have not fully attained this laud- 
able object. The colonists have done much,* and are preparing 
to do much more in this department, and instead of employing your 
pen in depreciating their efforts, it had been more in character 
if you had recorded a tribute to the living and the dead, for 
their services to the cause of humanity, memorable examples 
of which the history of the colony has furnished. 

But I forbear to enlarge on this subject, but would simply 
ask you, sir, whether charity and candour did not furnish you 
with a better interpretation of the motives of the society and 
its friends, than the " ignorance, rashness, and credulousness" 
of which you accuse them. When the society encourage the 
friends of humanity by the expression of the high hopes of its 
friends and agents, that the slave-trade is suppressed within an 
hundred miles of Monrovia, and when afterward, it publishes 



* Mr. J. F. C. Finlay, writing from Millsburg, in the colony of Li- 
beria^ to the Rev. Dr. Wilson, of Cincinnati, under date of 6th De- 
cember, 1834, says, 

" The colony of Liberia has done at least five times as much to- 
wards abolishing the slave-trade on this coast, as the whole of the 
United States.^' 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 33 

letters from its agents that the avarice and cupidity of traders, 
and the treachery of native kings, have again polluted the soil, 
by renewing the crime which they had hoped was banished 
from the coast, for even a greater distance ; is it fair, liberal, or 
just, for you to impeach their motives, and decry their well-meant 
endeavours ? Does not the fact that these seeming variations 
in their statements are published by the society itself, dej^ion- 
strate their candour and veracity ? And ought not the society, 
after discovering that this abominable traffic yet lingers in the 
neighbourhood of their settlements, to stimulate the zeal and be- 
nevolence of its friends to increasing efforts for its utter exter- 
mination by publishing it to the world ? I blush that you should 
labour with a zeal worthy of a better cause, to deprive the so- 
ciety of the merit it is admitted, even by its enemies, to have 
earned, that of interrupting the slave-trade. And your at- 
tempt to disparage the character of the colonists, by impeaching 
them as " ignorant and depraved negroes," shows on your part 
a most strange incongruity with other parts of your book. They 
have shown thus far that they deserve better treatment, than to 
have it insinuated that they will not resist the " temptations of 

a lucrative commerce." 

With due respect, 

Yours, &c» 



34 LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER VII. 

Sir, 

In your 4th chapter you assail the missionary injluence of 
the colony, so determined do you seem that " no good thing: 
shall come out of this Nazareth." And in the notice I am 
constrained to give to this chapter, I find the most painful part 
of my duty. Recognising you in the capacity of a Christian 
professor, I can scarcely suppress my feelings when I find 
such a spirit of ridicule and satire as you seem to have culti- 
vated on this part of your subject, but still more, when I disco- 
ver the monstrous extravagances and mistakes into which you 
have fallen. I am bound to suppose that you unfeignedly be- 
lieve what you say, but I venture to predict that you will find 
few readers, any where, equally credulous. 

Such assertions as the following are made in your book : 

" They seek for the regeneration of Africa, by emigrants who 
when in the United States were denounced as a curse and 
co7itagion wherever they reside !" 

"Of this great company of preachers, about 3000 of them 
have already set up their tabernacle at Liberia !" 

" Pious colonizationists would, themselves, be shocked at the 
proposal of disgorging oja the islands of the Pacific the tenants 
of our prisons under the pretext of instructing the natives in 
religion and the arts, and yet they flatter themselves, that emi- 
grants, who, by their own showing, are less intelligent and 
scarcely less guilty than our prisoners, will by undergoing a 
SALT WATER BAPTISM, land in Africa wholly regenerated, and 
qualified as heralds of the cross to convert millions and mil- 
lions to the faith of the gospel." 

These and similar declarations can scarcely be ascribed to 
the " want of information," sir, for a moiety of the labour you 
have used in penning them, would have satisfied you that no 
member or friend of the Colonization Society ever entertained 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 35 

or expressed such preposterous anomalies as you gravely ascribe 
to your " fellow Christians." 

It is not true that the regeneration of Africa Was ever con- 
templated by means of such emigrants as you describe. It is 
not true, that " a great company of 3000 preachers" were ever 
supposed, by any body but yourself, to have set up their taberna- 
cle at Liberia. It is not trnce, that the Colonization Society ex- 
pect by a " salt water baptism," as you profanely assert, to con- 
vert emigrants " scarcely less guilty than our prisoners" into 
" heralds of the C7'0S5." These, and other specimens of your 
unmusical and unmelodious " poetry," I repeat, are not true. 
And yet it {5 true, that " pious Christians" do regard the esta- 
blishment of the colony as opening " a great and effectual door" 
for the preaching of that gospel Avhich is the " power of God 
unto salvation," and to which gospel they look for the regene- 
ration of Africa. Nor will the sneering or scoffing, either of 
Christians or infidels, should they be afflicted with such treat- 
ment from both these classes, at all diminish their zeal or con- 
fidence. 

If you found it in your heart, sir, to treat the living among 
your fellow citizens and fellow Christians, with so much of con- 
tempt and satire, surely you might have spared the memory of 
the pious dead. Or must your " want of information" again 
shield you from the reproach of treating the lamented Andrews, 
and Bacon, and Carey, and Cox, and Cloud, and Laird, and 
Wrisht, whose ashes lie beneath the sands'of Africa, with con- 
tumely and gainsaying ? Do you not know that among those to 
whom colonizationists look for the regeneration of Africa, there 
are yet living missionaries of your own and other denomina- 
tions, in whose behalf the whole church glorifies God, who are 
truly " heralds of the cross" consecrated to the work of evan- 
gelizing Africa ? Are you ignorant of what every body else 
knows, that there are many among the emigrants who have the 
confidence of the whole Christian community, and whose claims 
to personal piety here, have been confirmed by their deportment 
there ? And have you yet to learn that among these, there are 
already in the colony, ministers of the Presbyterian, Baptist, 
Methodist, and Episcopal churches, who are truly heralds of 
the cross, and that others of similar character, like Gloster, 



33 LETTERS TO THE 

Simpson, and Archy Moore, are even now passing through what 
you, in a spirit approaching to impiety, call " a salt water bap- 
tism." And are these men worthy of the " pious sneers" and 
profane mockery of a Christian brother ? Or are those who 
" unfeignedly believe in the missionary influence of such, and 
offer contributions and prayers for the regeneration of Africa 
through their instrumentality," to be held up to public " odium 
and ridicule ?" If such be the effect which anti-slavery senti- 
ments have produced in you, sir, forgive me if I exclaim, " My 
soul, come not thou into their secret. To their assembly mine 
honour, be not thou united !" * 

But while you vilify the character of the colonists, ascribing 
to them, en masse, the language employed by various speakers 
in describing the wretchedness and depravity of multitudes of 
the free blacks here, and which is by them justly attributed to 
the neglect and oppressions they suffer in our country, and while 
you represent the society as sending " ship loads of vagabonds" 
to Africa as missionaries, in the true spirit and style of Garrison- 
ism ; I am amazed to discover that you so " deeply regret the at- 
tempt lately made by distinguished colonizationists to select for 
emigrants the moral, industrioios, and temperate.'''' And pray, 
let me ask the cause of this deep regret 1 If the " corrupt, de- 
praved, and guilty" character of our colonists does not suit you, 
why should you regret that an attempt is made to " change 
their character in future ?" '• We have piped unto you, and 
you have not danced, we have mourned unto you, and you have 
not lamented." Is there no way to please you ? Alas, you are 
concerned for our " moral rectitude," which you say is in dan- 
ger, unless we " abandon colonization as a means of relieving 
the country from the nuisance of a free coloured population, 
and from the guilt and curse of slavery." Suffer me yet again 
to remind you, that the society does not " profess to be a reme- 
dy for slavery," nor to " remove any nuisance," but simply to 
establish a colony of free people of colour in Africa, with their 
own consent, so that your fears for our " moral rectitude" may 
find an object nearer home. Your reference to the Rev. Dr. 
Beecher, whom you accuse of " gross inconsistency, not to use 
a harsher term," is founded on the following resolution which 
the doctor offered at a meetinsf in Cincinnati. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 37 

" Resolved, That the establishment of colonies in Africa, by 
the selection of coloured persons, who are moral^ industrious^ 
and temperate, is eminently calculated to advance the cause of 
civilization and religion among the benighted native popula- 
tion of that continent, as well as to afford facilities to the va- 
rious missionary societies for the prosecution of their pious 
designs." 

This resolution, you say, is " utterly without point or mean- 
ing," thus placing under the ban of your reprobation its excel- 
lent author for the sin of colonizationism. And is there no 
gross inconsistency here, " not to use a harsher term ?" Have 
you not written a chapter in condemnation of the society for 
not selecting their emigrants, and availed yourself of all the 
" evil speaking" that has ever been uttered against the colony 
for intemperance, indolence, and immorality, and now you de- 
clare a resolution to be utterly without point or meaning, which 
proposes in future to select the " moral, industrious, and tempe- 
rate." I forbear to pain you by enlarging, let reason and con- 
science speak. 

But you discover a still more gross inconsistency in this reso- 
lution, since you say that the seZecfio?i proposed, is "utterly at 
variance with and directly opposed to the avowed objects of the 
society." And here again you repeat the old blunder, that the 
objects of the society are the abolition of slavery,' which you 
try to prove by quoting another resolution, that they cherish 
the society among other reasons, because of its influence to 
abolish slavery. And can you make no distinction between 
the influence collaterally exerted by the society and its objects? 
I refer you again to the constitution, which may enlighten you, 
that yoM may not again repeat this day dream, by Avhich you 
are yourself bewildered, and mislead your readers. 

But it seems you are not content with impugning the intdli- 
gence of your " Christian brethren," but their integrity also, 
for you allege, that this " recent talk about select emigrants 
may be attributed to expediency." " Funds are low and tem- 
perance popular, and all at once we hear about temperance co- 
Ionics and select emigrants." " Surely, colonizationists pay 
but a poor compliment to their own candour, or the common, 
sense of the community. The truth is, there never has been 
5 



38 LETTERS TO THE 

nor never will he, a selection made !" Here then we have the 
character of your " fellow Christians" drawn by yourself, and 
if there be any truth in the description, " colonizationists" are 
not only destitute of candour or common sense, but equally des- 
titute of any measure of principle or veracity. I leave you to en- 
joy the self-complacency which are perusal of this paragraph will 
afford you, and pass on, without condescending to criticise it, 
for the reason that I should disdain, even to deny it. 

Your last charge in this letter, is, that " the professed ulti- 
mate object of the society is to remove the whole coloured po- 
pulation to Africa, without any selection whatever." Thus 
you blunder on, whenever you speak of the objects of the soci- 
ety ; you betray the same " want of information" at every step, 
and in this case, it is marvellous how you should make a quota- 
tion which disproves your own statement, in the extract from 
the African Repository, where a committee of the board say that 
ihefree should "be removed as fast as their own consent can 
he obtained, and as the means can be found for their removal, 
and for their proper estahlishment in Africa." Now if you, sir, 
have faith, that the consent of the whole coloured population 
will ever be obtained, and that the means will ever be found 
for the removal and proper establishment of the whole in Afri- 
ca, you are more credulous than any colonizationist now living. 
The society, I remind you again, has no professed object but 
the exclusive one contained in the second article of the consti- 
tution. 

If then the system of African Colonization is, as you say, 
" full of ahsurdities, and contradictions, and evils, which are 
NOT SEEN, because they are concealed by a veil of prejudice," 
I fear that this veil yet obstructs your own vision, for, 

" Optics sharp it needs, I ween, 
To see what is not to be seen." 

And when you think you see them, and attempt to put your 
finger on them — they are not there ! 

With due respect, 

Y"ours, &c. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 39 



LETTER VIII. 

Sir, 

1 COME now to the "Influence of the Society on Slavery," 
which is the subject of your fifth chapter. 

And here the reader will perceive, that you only speak of 
the moral influence expected by the friends of colonization to 
result from the society, and no longer urge or pretend, what 
you have elsewhere asserted, that it "professes to be a 
remedy for slavery," And yet you deny that it exerts this in- 
fluence " in any degree," and after classifying the kinds of in- 
fluence which must operate, you say, " it will not be pretended 
that the society addresses itself to the conscience of the slave- 
holder." The " Avant of information," not " to use a harsher 
term," under which you venture this ridiculous assertion, is 
absolutely astounding to your friends, and shows conclusively, 
if we had not elsewhere had cause to deplore the truth of your 
own sentiments, that " good men and good Christians" are led 
by their zeal against the society to hazard their reputation by 
"opinions at variance with truth and Christianity." 

I would here invite your attention to the following quotations, 
and ask, is there no appeal to the conscience here ? 

" On the subject of slavery we must express ourselves briefly, 
yet boldly. We have heard of slavery as it exists in Asia, and 
Africa, and Turkey ;—w^e have heard of the feudal slavery 
under which the peasantry of Europe have groaned from the 
days of Alaric, until now ; but excepting only the horrible sys- 
tem of the West India Islands, we have never heard of slavery 
in any country, ancient or modern, Pagan, Mohammedan, or 
Christian, so terrible in its character, so 'pernicious in its 
tendency, so remediless in its anticipated results, as the 
slavery which exists in these United States." Appendix to 
7th Report, 1824. 



40 LETTERS TO THE 

" The friends of human liberty are enlisting under the banner 
of colonization, and the advocates of perpetual despotism are 
arranging themselves under the banner of its adversaries, and 
it requires not the spirit of prophecy to foretell, whose princi- 
ples in this age of reason and i^eligion, and in this country of 
universal intelligence, will become universally popular." Ap- 
pendix to 16th Report, 1833. 

But Mr. Elliot Cresson is still more explicit, as may be seen 
by the following extract from his address : " Instead of de- 
nouncing an evil which they have not power to overthrow, they 
have recourse to the more sure but gradual mode of removing it, 
by enlightening the consciences and convincing the judgments 
of slaveholder s.'''^ Were it not for your deplorable " want of 
information," it would be needless to inform you, that the 
speaker last named, has himself been instrumental in effecting 
the emancipation of scores, if not hundreds, of slaves. When, 
alas ! when shall the American Anti-Slavery Society, its offi- 
cers and managers, and its eulogist included, promote abolition 
to the extent which this single individual has done? Or, ra- 
ther, when will they all cease to obstruct and hinder the cause 
of freedom by their angry denunciation, without effecting the 
emancipation of a single slave ? 

To prove that such appeals are not of recent date, and that 
the moral influence of the society was, from the beginning, ex- 
pected to be operative in promoting emancipation, I refer you to 
the avowals made in the early reports. 

" That they considered slavery a great moral and political 
evil, and cherished the hope and belief, that the successful pro- 
secution of their object would offer poiDeriful motives and exert 
a persuasive influence in favour of voluntary emancipation,''^ 
— 2d Report. 

"The hope of the gradual and utter aholition of slavery, in 
a manner consistent with the rights, interest, and happiness of 
society, ought never to he abandoned?'' — Ibid. 

And by the fourteenth report, it is shown, that the views of 
the society are unchanged. 

" The effect of this institution, if its prosperity shall equal 
our wishes, will be alike propitious to every interest of our do- 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 41 

niestic society ; and should it lead^ as we may fairly hope it 
will, to the slow but gradual abolition of slavery, it will wipe 
from our political institutions the only blot which stains them ; 
— and in palliation of which, we shall not be at liberty to plead 
the excuse of moral necessity, until we shall have honestly 
exerted all the means which we possess for its extinction." 

" But it may be said, that the society has expressed the opi- 
nion, that slavery is a moral and political evil ; and that it has 
regarded the scheme of colonization as presenting motives, and 
exerting a moral influence on the south, favourable to gradual 
and voluntary emancipation. TTiis is true, and it is this, be- 
yond all question, which has secured to it the countenance and 
patronage of our most profound and sagacious statesmen, and 
given to this scheme a peculiar attractiveness and glory in the 
view of the enlightened friends of their country and of man- 
kind:' 

But a volume might be written of the proofs which the pub- 
lications of the society furnish in refutation of the mistake you 
have here committed, in saying, that "addresses to the con- 
science are not authorized by the constitution, and are disclaim- 
ed by the society." 

Hear the disinterested opinion of such men as the Rt. Rev. 
and venerable Bishop White, and Roberts Vaux, of Philadel- 
phia, when they say, " We fully believe that if the society be 
amply sustained, it will ultimately put an end to the odious 
foreign traffic in human flesh, and contribute more effectually to 
promote and insure the abolition of slavery in the United 
States, than any plan that has hitherto been devised." And 
have we not here the testimony of those excellent men, that^the 
moral influence of the colony was that to which they looked 
by its operation upon the co7isciences of slaveholders, for the 
voluntary and peaceful abolition of slavery. 

But I forbear to multiply quotatione, and proceed to show 
you, sir, that your injustice to the society is not only proven by 
their professions, but by their practice. The society does not 
merely '■'■promise'^ to promote abolition, but exerts a mighty and 
successful moral influence in actually abolishing slavery. 
And here I will not refer you to the truth, which he who runs 
may read, that in Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, and even 
5* 



42 LETTERS TO THE 

Virginia itself, it is now openly avowed that " 'colonization 
doctrines have sealed the death warrant of slavery /" Hence 
the pro-slavery party have declared that " colonization and 
emancipation are synonimous terms, and that the approach of 
the former must be resisted /" At a meeting of the same party 
in Charleston, the following toast was given, " May the infer- 
nal regions soon be colonized with the officers of the Coloniza- 
tion Society !" And while you are labouring with your mis- 
guided associates in the north, to hold up the Colonization So- 
ciety, as hypocritical in its professions to exert a moral influ- 
ence towards the voluntary and utter abolition of slavery, you 
are leagued with " all the advocates of the negro's perpetual 
bondage, who are the bitter uncompromising enemies of the so- 
ciety." The Rev. J. M. Danforth states on his own personal 
knowledge, that in South Carolina, " the society, and every 
thing connected with it, are held in extreme abhorrence by our 
leading men, our politicians and wealthy planters. It is so un- 
popular an institution that very few name it publicly,— it is re- 
garded here as a northern scheme to wrest from us our slaves," 
In your anti-colonization efforts then, you are associated in 
action with the very men, whose character as slaveholders is 
so odious, that you deprecate their connexion with the coloni- 
zation cause, as an unpardonable sin. Let me conjure you, sir, 
no longer to be "jostled by the trafficker in human flesh," in 
your crusade against the society or its benevolent objects, but 
abandon the " bad eminence" to which your " want of infomia- 
tion" has unhappily raised you. 

Let me now invite your attention, sir, to a few facts, which 
no sophistry can evade, and until you can show a similar list, 
and these are only a few among many, had you not better 
lower your exclusive pretensions, to anti-slavery practice, 
however you may cling to a theory, which until you effect a 
single instance of emancipation, I must denominate in your 
own style to be the "baseless fabric of a vision," and call upon 
you in turn to give 

•' To airy nothing, 

A local habitation and a name !' 

The following manumissions are the legitimate result of the 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 43 

^^ moral injluencc^^ of the Colonization Society, which you 
deny and even ridicule ! 

" *It would be endless to enumerate the cases of this kind that 
have occurred. Some of them must be recorded, that the acts 
and the names of the parties, where known, may have the ap- 
plause to which they are entitled, and, what is of more conse- 
quence, that they may serve as stimuli to others, to follow the 
noble example. 

" A lady, near Charleston, Va. liberated all her slaves, ten 
in number, to be sent to Liberia ; and moreover purchased two^ 
whose families were among her slaves. For the one she gave 
$450, and for the other S350. 

"The late William Fitzhugh bequeathed their ffeedom to alL 
his slaves, after a certain fixed period, and ordered that their 
expenses should be paid to whatsoever place they should think 
proper to go. And, ' as an encouragement to them to emigrate 
to the American colony on the coast of Africa, "where,' adds 
the will, ' I believe their happiness will be more permanently 
secured, I desire not only that the expenses of their emigration 
be paid, but that the sum of fifty dollars be paid to each one so 
emigrating, on his or her arrival in Africa.' 

" David Shriver, of Frederick co. Maryland, ordered by his 
will, that all his slaves, thirty in number, should be emancipa- 
ted, and that proper provision should be made for the comforta- 
ble support of the infirm and aged, and for the instruction of the 
young in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in some art or 
trade, by which they might acquire the means of support. 

'• Col. Smith, an old revolutionary officer, of Sussex county, 
Va. ordered in his will, that all his slaves, seventy or eighty in 
number, should be emancipated ; and bequeathed above $?5000 
to defray the expense of transporting them to Liberia. 

" Patsey Morris, of Louisa co., Va. directed by will, that all 
her slaves, sixteen in number, should be emancipated, and left 
§500 to fit them out, and defray the expense of their passage. 

" The schooner Randolph, which sailed from Georgetown, 
South Carolina, had on board twenty-six slaves, liberated by a 
benevolent individual near Cheraw. 

* Matthew Carey, Eso^. of Philadelphia. 



44 LETTERS TO THE 

" Of 105 emigrants, who sailed in the brig Doris, from Balti- 
more and Norfolk, sixty-two were emancipated on condition of 
being conveyed to Liberia. 

" Sampson David, late a member of the legislature of Ten- 
nessee, provided by will, that all his slaves, twenty -tic o in num- 
ber, who are mostly young, should be liberated in 1840, or 
sooner, at his wife's decease, if she died before that period. 

" Herbert B. Elder, of Petersburg, Va. bequeathed their 
freedom to all his slaves, twenty in number, with directions 
that they should be conveyed to Liberia, by the first opportu- 
nity. 

" A gentleman in Georgia, has recently left forty-nine slaves 
free, on condition of their removal to Liberia. 

" Mrs. Elizabeth Morris, of Bourbon co., Va. provided by 
will for the emancipation of her slaves, about forty in number. 

"David Patterson, of Orange co., North Carolina, freed 
eleven slaves, to be sent to Liberia. 

" Rev. Fletcher Andrew, gave freedom to twenty, who con- 
stituted most of his property, for the same purpose. 

" Nathaniel Crenshaw, near Richmond, liberated sixty slaves, 
with a view to have them sent to Liberia. 

" Rev. Robert Cox, Suffolk co., Va. provided by his will for 
the emancipation of all his slaves, upwards of thirty, and left 
several hundred dollars to pay their passage to Liberia. 

"Joseph Leonard Smith, of Frederick co., Md. liberated 
twelve slaves, who sailed from Baltimore for Liberia. 

" Of 107 coloured persons who sailed in the Carolinian, from 
Norfolk for Liberia, forty-Jive were emancipated on condition of 
being sent there. 

"In the brig Criterion, which sailed from Norfolk for Liberia, 
on the 2d August, 1831, there were forty-six persons who had 
been liberated, on condition of proceeding to Liberia ; 18 by 
Mrs. Greenfield, near Natchez ; S by Mr. Williams, of Eliza- 
beth city, N. C. ; 7 by Gen. Jacocks, of Perquimans, Ohio ; 4 
by Thomas Davis, Montgomery co. Miss. ; 2 by two other in- 
dividuals ; and 5 by some of the Q,uakers in North Carolina. 
Of those liberated slaves, 2 only were above 40 years of age, 
22 were under 35, and 22 under 20. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 45 

" A gentleman in N. C, last year, ^ave freedom to all his 
slaves, 14 in number, and provided 20 dollars each, to pay their 
passage to Liberia. 

" Mrs. J. of Mercer co., Kentucky, and her two sons, one a 
clergyman, and the other a physician, lately offered the Coloni- 
zation Society, sixty slaves, to be conveyed to Liberia. 

" Henry Robertson, of Hampton, Va., bequeathed their free- 
dom to seven slaves, and fifty dollars to each, to aid in their re- 
moval to Liberia, 

" William Fletcher, of Perquimans, N. C, ordered by will, 
that his slaves, twelve in number, should be hired out for a year 
after his death, to earn wherewith to pay for their conveyance 
to Liberia. 

" A gentleman in Kentucky, lately wrote to the secretary of 
the society, ' I will Avillingly give up twelve or fifteen of my 
coloured people at this time ; and so on gradually^ till the whole, 
about sixty, are given up, if means for their passage can be af- 
forded.' 

'• On board the Harriet, from Norfolk, of one hundred and sixty 
emigrants, between/or^^and^/jfj/ had been slaves, emancipated 
On condition of being sent to Africa. 

" In addition to these instances, several others might be added, 
particularly that of Richard Bibb, Esq., of Kentucky, who pro- 
poses to send sixty slaves to Liberia — two gentlemen in Mis- 
souri, who desire to send eleven slaves — a lady in Kentucky of- 
fers forty — the Rev. John C. Burress, of Alabama, intends pre- 
paring all his slaves for colonization — the Rev. William L. 
Breckenridge, of Kentucky, manumitted 11 slaves, who sailed 
a few weeks ago from New-Orleans. 

" In this Avork of benevolence, the Society of Friends, as in so 
many other cases, have nobly distinguished themselves, and as- 
sumed a prominent attitude. They have, in North Carolina, 
liberated no less than 652 slaves, whom they had under their 
care, besides, as says my authority, an unknown number of chil- 
dren, husbands and wives, connected v/ith them by consanguin- 
ity, and of whom, part went to Canada, part to Liberia, part to 
Hayti, and a portion to Ohio. In the perfonnance of these acts 
of benevolence, they expended $12,7o9. They had remaining 



46 LETTERS TO THE 

under their care, in December, 1830, 402 slaves, for whom similar 
arrangements were to be made. 

It holds out every encouragement to the Colonization Socie- 
ty, that the applications for the transportation of free negroes, 
and slaves proposed to be emancipated on condition of removal 
to Liberia, /ar exceed its means. There are, in North Carolina 
and the adjacent states, from three to four thousand o{ hoxh. de- 
scriptions, ready to embark, were the society in a situation to 
send them away." 

The foregoing authentic /ac/s, are here presented in refuta- 
tion of all you have said in denial of the moral influence of co- 
lonization in effecting abolition and not merely promoting it. I 
forbear to add a single w^ord of comment. 

I pass briefly to notice the statistical calculations you make 
on page 74, in order to show that the scheme of transporting to 
Africa " the whole coloured population," is altogether imprac- 
ticable. But here again you bewilder yourself and mislead 
your readers, by another of your " day dreams." On what au- 
thority do you assert that the object of the society is "to abol- 
ish slavery, by transporting all the free, or all the slaves, or all 
the annual increase ?" Have you not reprobated the society 
because of its " single and exclusive object," and now you add 
another to the many objects you impute to it, some of which 
the society never dreamed of. I again remind you, sir, that the 
only object of the American Colonization Society is to colonize, 
that it Avill only colonize the jr7^ee, .and that it will only colonize 
these with their oxon consent. And if among the millions of 
slaves there shall only 3000 become free, and ?/ among the free, 
there should only 3000 more consent to be colonized, then the 
extent of the colonization scheme will terminate with the trans- 
portation of 6000. If you then, can by your figures, tell how 
many of the/ref, or of those who shall become such, will con- 
sent to go to Africa between this time and the year 1S60, the 
time which your calculations contemplate, you can readily sat- 
isfy yourself, that the society is guiltless of the " stupendous 
absurdity" of w^hich you are the exclusive proprietor, and have 
earned the exclusive honour. You might have spared yourself 
then this Quixotic war upon a windmill of your own inven- 
tion. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 47 

But you next " assert," in the style of dogmatizing, which 
I must suppose to be a recent accomplishment, acquired along 
with your anti-slavery creed, " that there is a general dispo- 
sition among slaveholders to perpetuate slavery !" I am sorry, 
sir, that you do not feel the importance of some degree of accu- 
racy in your assertions, and the propriety of sustaining your 
ipse dixit with some kind of evidence, especially when you 
contradict men whose intelligence, character, and opportunity of 
understanding the subject, are fully equal to your own. 

Let me refer you to the speech of R. S. Finlay, Esq. at a late 
annivei'sary. He says, 

" I know that much pains have been taken to calumniate our 
brethren of the south, by representing them to be the advocates 
of perpetual despotism. From an extensive and familiar ac- 
quaintance with their views and sentiments, formed upon actual 
observation, I know this not to be the fact. I have publicly 
discussed this- subject every where in the southern states, 
from the eastern shore of Maryland to the Gulf of Mexico, in 
the presence of hundreds of slaves at a time, and with the ge- 
neral approbation of the audience to which my addresses were 
delivered, — and have uniformly represented it as affording the 
best and only safe means of gradually and entirely abolishing 
slavery. Indeed, so well is the moral influence of the opera- 
tions of this society understood in the extreme south, that all 
the advocates of perpetual slavery are bitterly opposed to it, and 
none are its advocates, but the friends of gradual, peaceful, and 
ultimate entire emancipation .'" 16th Report. 

With such unequivocal testimony before you, how great must 
be the prejudice under which you " assert that there is a gene- 
ral disposition among slaveholders to perpetuate slavery." And 
how differently did a knowledge of the facts, which the history 
of the society furnishes, influence the venerable and immortal 
Clarkson, who has devoted half a century to the cause of Afri- 
can emancipation. In a letter, dated Nov. 4, 1831, Mr. Clark- 
son says, 

" For myself, I freely confess, that of all the things which 
have occurred in our favour since the year 1787, when the abo- 
lition of the slave trade was first seriously proposed, that which 
is now going on in the United States, under the auspices of the 



48 LETTERS TO THE 

American Colonization Society, is most important. It sur- 
passes any thing which has yet occurred. No sooner had the 
colony been founded at Cape Montserado, than there appeared 
a disposition among the owners of slaves in the United States 
to give them freedom voluntarily, without one farthing of com- 
pensation, and to allow them to be sent to the land of their an- 
cestors. This is to me truly astonishing ! a total change of 
heart in the planters, so that many thousands of slaves may be 
redeemed without any cost of their redemption ! Can this al- 
most universal feeling have taken place without the interven- 
tion of the Spirit of God !" And Wilberforce, that champion 
of freedom, in allusion to the same subject, and this at the time 
of his high health and intellectual vigour, confessed that " warm 
as his anticipations had been, they were but cold and meagre, 
compared with the reality, effected by this noble plan." Such 
were the voluntary tributes, paid to this society for developing 
the disposition existing among slaveholders, to emancipate their 
slaves, and from British philanthropists too. I blush, while I 
exhibit them, sir, in contrast with your ^'assertion;'''' while 
constrained to confess that you are an American, declaring in 
the face of irrefragable facts, that your own countrymen and fel- 
low Christians are " endeavouring to transmit slavery, as a 
precious inheritance to their latest posterity," and that " no de- 
sire exists at the south to get rid of slavery.'''' 

I am pained at the necessity imposed upon me by duty to the 
cause of truth, to meet this last statement by a palpable denial, 
and the presentation of a single evidence which ought to cover 
you Avith shame for having done so great an act of injustice. I 
refer to the illustrious example of Maryland in her noble effort 
to add another to the non-slaveholding states of this union. 
The managers of that society avow "the extirpation of slave- 
ry as the chief object of its existence," and one " worthy of 
every exertion ;" and again, "It is the desire of the society that 
the evil of slavery should be removed from Maryland." But 
in direct contradiction to this official document, and with this sen- 
tence before you, as your quotations prove, could it have been 
believed that you, sir, would " assert" that " no desire exists 
at the south to get rid of slavery." Which are we to believe in, 
such a case ? Your own unsupported assertion, or the follow- 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 49 

ing preamble to their constitution, " Whereas, it is the desire 
of the Maryland State Colonization Society, to hasten as far 
as they can the period when slavery shall cease to exist 
in Maryland," &c. I mean no disrespect when I say, that every 
reader will decide that you have here most grievously misrepre- 
sented the character of your fellow citizens of the south, and I 
forbear pursuing any farther the caricature you have drawn of 
this Maryland State Colonization Society, though throughout it 
is made up of a perversion and distortion of the facts in the 
case, for which I can frame no apology. You call it a " dis- 
graceful contrivance to get rid of the free blacks, disguised by 
insincere professions /" " A cruel and perfidious measure.'* 
From a personal knowledge of the managers of that state soci- 
ety, whom you thus vilify, the most of whom are distinguished 
in the learned professions, and also eminent in their Christian 
character, I feel a righteous indignation at the hardihood which 
could permit you to accuse them of " disgraceful hypocrisy, 
cruelty, and perfidy.'''' Where they are known, sir, you will 
allow me to say, without any depreciation of your station or 
character, even Mr. Jay will fail in staining their character, or 
impeaching their integrity. 

I would here introduce to your notice a few brief extracts, 
from the writings and speeches of distinguished gentlemen in 
various parts of the south and west, all of whom are, or have 
been, extensive slaveholders, and I would ofier these in refuta- 
tion of this cruel and unjust description you give of the south- 
ern character, when you say, that " No desire exists at the south 
to get rid of slavery .'" and again, " So far from slaveholders 
wishing to abolish slavery, they are endeavouring to transmit 
it as a precious inheritance to their latest posterity ;" and 
" we assert that there is a general disposition among slave- 
holders to perpetuate slavery .'" These are your assertions, 
made with the expressed design to convict the Colonization So- 
ciety of misrepresentation and falsehood, m expressing their 
confidence that " there is a growing desire at the south to 
abolish slavery," and that very many slaveholders are ready to 
emancipate their slaves, so soon as the society provides the 
means for their emigration. The following brief extracts will 
amply refute your statements, and sustain those of the Coloni- 
6 



50 LETTERS TO THE 

zation Society. You will not question that the speakers are as 
respectable and credible as yourself. 

Patrick Henry. 

" I repeat it again, that it would rejoice my very soul that 
every one of my fellow beings was emancipated. As we ought 
with gratitude to admire that decree of heaven which has num- 
bered us among the free, we ought to lament and deplore the 
necessity of holding our fellow men in bondage." — Debates in 
Virginia Convention. 

Zachariah Johnson. * 

" Slavery has been the foundation of that impiety and dissi- 
pation which have been so much disseminated among our coun- 
trymen. If it were totally abolished, it would do much good." 

Ibid. 

Judge Tucker. 
" The introduction of slavery into this country, is, at this 
day,* considered among its greatest misfortunes.''' And in 
1803, he said, after pronouncing slavery to be " a calamity, a re- 
proach, and a curse,"—" those who wish to postpone emancipa- 
tion, do not reflect that every day renders the task more arduous 
to be performed." 

General Harper. 
' It tends, and may powerfully tend, to rid us gradually and 
entirely in the United States, of slaves and slavery, a great 
moral and political evil, of increasing virulence and extent, 
from which much mischief is now felt, and very great calamity 
in future, is justly apprehended. It speaks not only to our un- 
derstandings, but to our senses ; and however it may be derided 
by some, or overlooked by others, Avho have not the ability or 
time, or do not give themselves the trouble to reflect on, 
and estimate properly, the force and extent of those great 
moral and physical causes, which prepare gradually, and at 
length bring forth the most terrible convulsions in civil society ; 
it will not be viewed without deep and awful apprehensions by 
any who shall bring sound minds, and some share of political 
knowledge and sagacity, to the serious consideration of the sub- 
ject. Such persons will give their most serious attention to 



* This was said as early as 1795. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 51 

any proposition whicn has for its object, the eradication of this 
terrible mischief lurking in our vitals." — Letter on Coloniza- 
tion Society. 

Darby. 

" Copying from Montesquieu, and not from observation of na- 
ture, climate has been called upon to account for stains on the 
human character, imprinted by the hand of political mistake. 
No country where negro slavery is established, but must bear, 
in part, the wounds inflicted on nature and justice. Without 
pursuing a train of metaphysical reasoning, we may at once 
draw this induction, that if slavery, like pain, is one of the laws 
of existence, the latter does not more certainly produce physical 
weakness, debility, and dearth, than does the former lessen the 
purity of virtue in the human breast.'* — History of Louisiana. 

M'Call 

" It is shocking to human nature, that any race of mankind, 
and their posterity, should be sentenced to perpetual slavery." 
History of Georgia. 

General Mercer. 

'' For, although it is believed, and is, indeed, too obvious to 
require proof, that the colonization of the free people of colour 
alone, would not only tend to civilize Africa ; to abolish the 
slave-trade ; and greatly to advance their own happiness ; but to 
promote that also of the other classes of society, the proprietors 
and slaves ; yet the hope of the gradual and utter abolition of 
slaver^^ in a manner consistent with the rights, interests, and 
happiness of society, ought never to be abandoned." — Report to 
Colonization Society. 

F. S. Key, Esq. 

'• I hope I may be excused, if I add, that the subject which 
enscages us, is one in which it is our right to act — as much our 
right to act, as it is the right of those who differ from us not to 
act. If we believe in the existence of a great moral and po- 
litical evil amongst us, and that duty, honour, and interest, call 
upon us to prepare the way for its removal, we must act. All 
that can be required of us, is, that we act discreetly," &c. 
Speech before Colonization Society. 

Mr. Clay. 

"If they would repress all tendencies towards liberty and ul- 



52 LETTERS TO THE 

timate emancipation, they must do more than put down the 
benevolent efforts of this society. They must penetrate the 
human soul, and eradicate the light of reason, and the love of 
liberty. Our friends, who are cursed with this greatest of hu- 
man evils, (slavery,) deserve our kindest attention and consi- 
deration. Their property and safety are both involved." — 
Speech before Colonization Society. 

William H. Fitzhugh, Esq. 

" Slavery, in its mildest form, is an evil of the darkest cha- 
racter. Cruel and unnatural in its origin, no plea can be urged 
in justification of its continuance, but the plea of necessity ; 
not that necessity which arises from our habits, our prejudices, 
or our wants ; but the necessity which requires us to submit to 
existing evils, rather than substitute, by their removal, others of 
a more serious and destructive character. There is no riveted 
attachment to slavery, prevailing extensively, in any portion of 
our country. Its injurious effects on our habits, our morals, our 
individual wealth, and more especially on our national strength 
and prosperity, are universally felt, and almost universally 
acknowledged." 

3Tr. Levasseur. 

'■' Happily, there is no part of the civilized world, in which it 
is necessary to discuss the justice or injustice of the principle 
of negro slavery ; at the present day, every sane man agrees 
that it is a monstrosity, and it would be altogether inaccurate, 
to suppose that there are in the United States, more than else- 
where, individuals sufficiently senseless to seek to defend it, 
either by their writings or conversation. For myself, who have 
traversed the twenty-four states of the union, and in the course 
of a year have had more than one opportunity of hearing long 
and keen discussions upon this subject, I declare that I never 
have found but a single person, who seriously defended this 
principle. This was a young man, whose head, sufficiently 
imperfect in its organization, was filled with confused and 
ridiculous notions relative to Roman History ; and appeared to 
be completely ignorant of the history of his own country. It 
would be waste of time, to repeat here, his crude and ignorant 
tirade." 

JVow. sir, if the sentiments of these men of eminent talents* 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 53 

citizens of the soutli, and slaveholders, do not convict you ol 
having caricatured and calumniated the southern character, 
surely you will retract this act of cruelty and injustice, when 
you read the folloAving extracts from "the Southern Review," 
which is the acknowledged representative of the slaveholding 
region, and expresses itself thus Avhile vindicating the present 
necessity of the system, though deprecating its perpetuity. 

" The conscientious slaveholder deserves a larger share of 
the sympathy of those who have sympathy to spare, than any 
other class of men, not excepting the slave himself." " One 
great evil of the system is its tendency to produce disorder 
and poverty in a country." " The slave-trade may be regarded 
as a conspiracy of all Europe and the commercial part of this 
continent, not only against Africa, but in a more aggravated 
sense, against these southern regions^ 

But if all this were insufficient, let me add the testimony of 
that same Mr, Harrison, of Virginia, whose language you have 
so perverted, and "vilified," in another part of your book. He 
says, speaking from personal knowledge, to which you cannot 
I)retend, 

" Almost all masters, in Virginia, assent to the proposition, 
that when slaves can be liberated without danger to them- 
selves^ and to their oicJi advantage, it ought to be done. If 
there are few who think otherAvise in Virginia, I feel assured 
that there are few such any where in the south!" 

Surely you cannot suppose that such vituperation and censo- 
riousness as you have here indulged, against this Maryland 
scheme, and the entire south, can produce conviction in any 
mind, or commend your " inquiry" to the candid and intelligent. 
Nor can you so far deceive yourself as to suppose that " this is 
the style to do good with." It is plain that your zeal in behalf 
of anti-colonizationism has " eaten you up," and reason, con- 
science, and religion itself, are all powerless in restraining 

your wrath. 

With due respect, 

Yours, &c. 



54 LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER IX. 

Sir, 

Having deceived yourself into the belief that the Coloniza- 
tion Society is impotent, and the scheme is impracticable, 
you next call on " the friends of humanity and religion to meet it 
with unrelenting hostility, to labour without rest ^nd vjithout 
weariness for its entire prostration.'''' When you began your 
book you called it a '■'■powerful institution^'^ and now you pro- 
claim its " utter impotency,'''' which you explain by saying it is 
" powerless for good, but mighty for evil?^ And having set the 
example of ^'- unrelenting hostility," you invoke "humanity 
and reliofion," and the friends of both, to enlist under your ban- 
ner, on which is inscribed, 

" The extinction of the American Colonization Society, the 
first step to the abolition of slavery !" 

Here, then, is the attitude you assume, and rally the forces of 
" immediate abolitionism" by this war-cry. Be it so. Let it be 
distinctly understood that " we are not the attacking party;— 
the American Colonization Society does not make war upon any 
man or any association of men. With the American Anti-Slavery 
Society w^e have nothing to do, further than in self-defence ; and 
meanwhile we rejoice, and will rejoice, in contemplating any 
measure of good which may be effected by all other societies, 
for the African race." 

In the recapitulation of the allegations against the society, 
which you introduce into this long chapter, you repeat that it 
" professes to be a remedy for slavery, and the only one," a 
charge which I have shown in a former letter to be without any 
foundation in truth. And you exhibit your own melancholy in- 
consistency, by attempting to convict the society's publications 
of contradictions, in having insisted that the object of the so- 
ciety is not emancipation, while its moral influence in promo- 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 55 

ting that cause, is so often referred to, thus refusing to acknow- 
ledge the obvious distinction between the single and exclusive 
object of the society, and those collateral benefits which its 
friends expect from its success. Such disingenuousness and 
uncandid fault-finding I have had frequent occasion to rebuke, 
in previous parts of this correspondence, and shall not dwell on 
it here. 

The following is, however, a distinct retraction of most of 
the charges I have refuted, and presents your opposition in 
another form. 

" We fully admit that the society has no more right to med- 
dle with emancipation or slavery^ than a Bible society ; — 
and we condemn it, because disregarding its professed object. 
and in utter contempt of its own constitution^ it has lent itself 
to support and perpetuate a system of cruelty and icickedness?^ 
" We will now proceed to show that the society has stepped out 
of its sphere to acknowledge that man may have property in 
man^ to justify him for holding this property, and to vilify all 
who would pei^suade him instantly to surrender it." 

There are here three distinct and explicit accusations, each of 
which is denied. I will now consider them separately : 

1st, The society " acknowledges that man may have pro- 
perty in man." 

This you attempt to sustain by quotations from the African 
Repository, in which the " rights of the slaveholders are re- 
spected as sacredy Now any schoolboy (pardon the allusion) 
will perceive that the rights here acknowledged as sacred, are the 
legal rights of the slaveholder, and not the abstract rights, for 
which some contend. Hence, the respect is shown to the " law 
of the land," and does not imply, as is falsely insinuated, the 
justification of those laws. So far from this, the society thus 
expresses itself, in the face of heaven and earth, " That slavery 
is a moral and political evil, is a truth inscribed, as it were, 
upon the firmament of heaven, the face of the earth, and the 
heart of man ; — the denial of which would be the denial of the 
fundamental principle of all free governments." 

2d. You next accuse the society of '• excusing and justify- 
ing slaveholders." This charge comes with a singular grace, 



56 LETTERS TO THE 

from one who blames the society for ^^ professing to be a re- 
medy for slavery, and being about to abolish it," and especially 
in the face of the fact, that those in the south who do " excuse 
and justify" the system, regard it as a " northern device to 
wrest from them their slaves." But could you, sir, expect that 
the sanction of your name would establish this allegation, 
coupled as it is with a form of prayer to be used by the head ol 
a family, in the slave region, published by the excellent Bishop 
Meade, himself a zealous colonizationist ? 

"O heavenly Master, hear me while I lift up my heart m 
prayer, for those unfortunate beings Avho call me master. O 
God make known to me my ichcle duty towards them and their 
oppressed race, and give me courage and zeal to do it at all 
events. Convince me of sin, if I be lorong- in retaining them 
another moment in bondage." 

Is there any thing here like excusing or justifying slavehold- 
ing. And if Bishop Meade, himself a zealous colonizationist, 
recommends this prayer to the pious colonizationists who are 
slaveholders in the south, and who daily use this " manual of 
devotion," how then do you say that " conscience and the word 
of God, death, judgment, and eternity, enter not into the com- 
position of colonization," and that the society " disclaims all ap- 
peals to the conscience," p. 73. 

3d. But you affirm, lastly, that " the society vilifes all who 
would persuade the slaveholder instantly to emancipate." I shall 
not examine the evidence you bring to bolster up this assertion, 
in detail, in this letter, but would here only record my unqualified 
denial even of its semblance of truth. The society vilifies 
nobody, nor do you furnish a particle of testimony in proof of 
any vilification, though your ovv'n book " vilifies" that society in 
the worst sense of that term, as I have already shown. But the 
opinions expressed by the society and its friends, against anti- 
slavery societies, every reader will perceive is in no instance 
against ^^ persuading slaveholders to emancipate," as you most 
unjustly allege. And though the society cannot as such inter- 
fere with the subject of slavery, because of its single and ex- 
clusive object, yet tens of thousands of its members, including 
very many slaveholders, would unite with those who would 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 57 

'^persuade masters to emancipate;" and if this were the pro- 
fession and practice of the anti-slavery societies, the Coloniza- 
tion Society would rejoice to welcome them as auxiliaries in 
their benevolent designs, and its members would every where 
exclaim, " Let there be no strife I pray thee, between me 
and thee, between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we be 
brethren." 

It is not true, then, that the society vilifies those who would 
pe7\suade slaveholders to emancipate, though it is conceded, that 
similar unkind and unfounded attacks, to that which you have 
made, have led some of its friends to " err from their propriety," 
and may have led the society, in its own vindication, sometimes 
in language, to violate its strict neutrality. For, in the language 
of Gerrit Smith, ihe able advocate of emancipation, and the true 
friend of the Colonization Society, " Such is, or should be the 
neutrality of our society, that its members may be free on the 
one hand to be slaveholders, and on the other to join the Anti- 
Slavery Society, without doing violence to their connexion with 
the Colonization Society." For there are thousands of us, and 
God is my record, I am one of them, who "joined the Coloni- 
zation Society in the spirit, and w4th the objects of abolitionists. 
In that spirit, and with these objects, w^e continue our connexion 
with it." 

You need not marvel then, sir, if men who have some share 
of reputation and intelligence, however inferior in either to 
yourself, should, when assailed with misrepresentation, ridicule, 
opprobrium, and abuse, sometimes write and speak unadvised- 
ly, and even unguardedly, in temper I mean, in self-vindica- 
tion. A conscientious integrity may sustain a man under any 
measure of persecution for righteousness' sake, but when his 
motives are impugned, his principles impeached, his opinions 
and practice perverted, and his claims to Christianity itself, 
denied, it is a duty he owes to the cause of truth, that he enter 
his disclaimer, record his protest, and prove his innocence. To 
be sure he should do this as a Christian, " not rendering railing 
for railing, but contrariwise ;" nevertheless, he is not responsible 
for the wounds which his adversary may receive from his ow7i 
darts, when their points are made to recoil upon himself. 



58 LETTERS TO THE 

And here, sir, I would briefly refer to the proofs you present, 
with your assertion, that the society is in fact an 
Anti-Abolition Society. 

The extract from the speech of a Mr. Harrison, of Virginia, is 
that on which your chief reliance is placed, and which, as I shall 
show, you not only pervert, but of which you make an illogical and 
illegitimate use. And first, I would remind you, that at the time 
that speech "\vas delivered, it was in vindication of the society 
from formidable opposition, originating in the south, among the 
advocates of slaver^y, then more numerous than now. Tliey 
had sought to prejudice the friends of the cause against the 
Colonization Society, by denying its professed neutrality on the 
subject of slavery, and attributing a secret design of promoting 
abolition, calling it a " northern device to wrest from us our 
slaves." For notwithstanding the constitutional declaration of 
our single and exclusive object, yet the practical moral influ- 
ence of the society's operations had thus early resulted in so 
many instances of voluntary emancipation, that the pro- 
slavery party had become alarmed. It was in this state of 
things, that Mr. Harrison disclaimed alliance with '-'any abo- 
lition society in America or elsewhere," and added, that the 
society was " ready, when there is need, to pass a censure upon 
such societies in America." This language, Avhich, in one of 
your rhetorical flourishes, you call an " unblushing outrage," 
was intended and understood at the time, to be nothing more 
than the strongest possible assurance, that the charge of sinis- 
ter or secret designs to exert any direct action upon slavery, — 
would be a violation of our professions, and was utterly false. 
It was saying to the advocates of perpetual slavery, if you 
continue to repeat your calumny, until "there is need," we shall 
not barely disclaim our alliance with abolition societies of which 
you accuse us, but will, by a public act, " pass a censure upon 
such societies," and thus brand you with this evidence of false- 
hood. Where then, sir, is that charily which " thinketh no 
evil," and which " puts the most favourable construction even 
on the most unfavourable appearances," in the strange per- 
version of this sentiment into an " unblushing outrage." 

But the use you make of it, is still worse than its per- 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 59 

version, for you apply the proposed censure to the '" aboli- 
tion societies," founded by the influence of such men as 
Franklin, and your distinguished father, and other illustrious 
citizens, who advocated gradual abolition. And it is against 
these that you allege that the society was ready to " pass a cen- 
sure." But is not this obviously a wild conceit of your mor- 
bid imagination? These societies had existed more than 
forty years before, and more than thirty years when the 
Colonization Society was formed ; and yet, though they were 
worthy of all praise, in doing all that their scheme was capa- 
ble of effecting, yet the " scattered and feeble rays of light," as 
you admit, had scarcely ' "begun to pierce the dense cloud 
which brooded over the southern country," and hence no alarm 
or resistance was felt among the advocates for slavery, nor Avould 
their plan have ever roused the fears of the pro-slavery party. 
During forty years their scheme of gradual abolition had not 
sensibly affected the slaveholding states, but in 1S2S, the Colo- 
nization Society had made such an impression, and produced 
voluntary abolition in so many instances, that fears w^ere enter- 
tained that this new scheme of gradualism was becoming too 
much like immediatism, and 71oid the friends of perpetual 
slavery, began to tremble. Now the abolition societies, before 
regarded as harmless things, became an object of dread, and 
fears were expressed that they might be made powerful en- 
gines in the hands of the Colonization Society, to do what 
their own constitution prohibited them from doing by direct 
action. And hence it became necessary, m the opinion of Mr. 
Harrison, to disclaim " alliance" with them, and promise, " if 
need be, to pass a censure upon them." This mode of conces- 
sion, is often the most powerful form of rhetoric, and at the 
time was not without its effect upon the pro-slavery enemies of 
colonization. But it is the essence of absurdity to suppose that 
he had any unfriendly design or tendency upon the abolition 
societies ; for at that time, 1828, many of the prominent friends 
of these societies, were actively enlisted in the cause of colo- 
nization, a circumstance which probably first awakened the 
jealousy of southern men, which Mr. Harrison thought it pro- 
per to remove, by the language he used. 

But you have persuaded yourself, that this promised censure^ 



60 LETTERS TO THE 

— promised " when there is need," and never performed, be- 
cause never needed, has had the effect of " withering and 
shrinking" the " abolition societies and their conventions !" 
How strange the infatuation which could attribute such mighty 
results to such an inefficient cause ! Surely, Mr. Harrison lit- 
tle thought when he made that speech, such stupendous conse- 
quences would follow, and better had it have been for him if 
you had never enlightened him by this discovery, for in such 
a case truly, 

" Ignorance were bliss, and it were folly to oe wise." 

Still, however, you have made a more extraordinary use of this 
speech than either of those I have named, for you not only 
scandalously deteriorate the character of the old abolition so- 
cieties by attempting to make it appear that the new anti- 
slavery societies, are their legitimate successors, but even call 
them " more sturdy associations." Spirit of Franklin, Jay. 
and Benezet ! Look on this picture and then on that I Your 
language is, 

"Within the last two years, the abolition societies have 
been partially succeeded by more sturdy associations, named 
Aiiti'Slavery Societies, which, instead of quailing beneath the 
frowns of their foe ! have dared to grapple with him in mortal 
conflict, and to stake the hopes of freedom on the issue." 

In the name of the abolition societies alluded to, sir, I pro- 
test against their incongruous association in aay aspect with the 
anti-slavery societies, much less as inferior to them ; I regard it 
as worse than " amalsramation of colours."* 



* Notwithstanding Mr. Jay so spiritedly repels the charge against 
modern abolitionists, of desiring amalgamation, as a calumny, and 
declares that " he must be deeply imbued with fanaticism, or rather 
insanity," who contends for the " reception in our families, and a 
place at our tables" for the blacks ; yet the following significant hint, 
at another kind of (wial gamut ion, is given by himself, un his 28th 
page, where he affirms : — 

" It is not very repid-able to our republicanism and religion, that 
there should be any necessity for seminaries for the exclusive use of 
such of our fellow countrymen as happen to have darker complexions 
than our own." Let me recommend, that in the promised second 
edition, either this sentence should be omitted, or the disclaimer al- 
luded to, for both will hardly find credit. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 61 

I deny that the former ever " quailed^'' before any ^^ frowns," 
or that the Colonization Society ever was their "foe." And as 
to the " daring to mortal conflict" of which you speak, I greatly 
rejoice to know that the " hopes of freedom" are not in the 
keeping of your Anti-Slavery Societies, and that they cannot 
therefore " stake them on any issue." No, sir, the " hopes of 
freedom" will be consummated, if both our society and your 
" sturdy associations" were annihilated to-morrow ,; for they 
who oppose, must " gird themselves for warfare against all the 
friends of virtue and of liberty, of man and of God." 

Believe me, sir, you deceive yourself egregiously, when you 
suppose that the freedom and "happiness of millions depends 
on your efforts," or those of what you are pleased to call your 
"haughty adversary," the Colonization Society. But if they 
did, you should remember, that " the end does not always sanc- 
tiiy the means." 

With due respect, 

Yoursj &c. 



62 LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER X. 

Sir, 



'■J 



As an evidence of the character and tendency of the abolition 
societies, to which so frequent reference is made, and in proof 
also, that Col. Wm. L. Stone has, for a great many years, ex- 
hibited a consistency of character, which ought to shield him 
from the obloquy and reproach you have so profusely poured 
upon him in your book, I would remind you of the Anti-Slavery 
Convention, held at Baltimore, in 1826, by the Abolition Man- 
umission Societies, and the prominent part Mr. Stone took in 
the proceedings of the Convention. The following preamble 
and resolutions, among others, Avhich that calumniated man 
then proposed for the adoption of that body, demonstrate that 
he felt and acted, 7iine years ago, as an abolitionist, which he 
still continues to be in the Colonization Society. 

" Whereas it is represented by the great body of the owners 
of slaves, that slavery is a grievous evil, and its continuance 
and increase fraught with many appalling dangers : — and 
whereas, the friends of emancipation are frequently called upon 
by the proprietors of slaves, to devise some adequate means to 
rid the country, by a safe and gradual process, of a population 
whose continuance amongst us is so unnatural, and whose 
rapid multiplication is so alarming; — and whereas many of 
the northern states have assisted, in former times, to entail this 
curse upon the land, by countenancing slavery themselves, and 
allowing their citizens to participate in the African slave-trade : 
and whereas, the safety, prosperity, and happiness, of any one 
portion of these United States, is alike dear to all j— and 
whereas, in the opinion of this convention, it is expedient for 
the nation to put forth its strength in a concentrated effort, to 
free this happy country from so great a calamity, without a 
forcible interference with rights of property, sanctioned indi- 
rectly, at least, by the constitutionj therefore. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 63 

"Resolved, That the Congress of the United States be request- 
ed to commence the great work of emancipation by immedi- 
ately abolishing slavery, within the District of Columbia, 
and causing the persons set at liberty to be transported to Hayti, 
or to the western coast of Africa ; or either, which they may 
choose for a residence. 

" And whereas, in the opinion of this convention, as a gene- 
ral rule, ignorance and vice are inseparable companions, and 
the best way to make good servants, is to enlighten their un- 
derstandings, and improve their hearts, by wholesome, moral, 
and religious instruction; and whereas, it is admitted on all 
hands, that sooner or later the work of emancipation must he 
undertaken, and prosecuted to its completion ; Therefore, in 
order that the slaves may be better fitted to appreciate and enjoy 
the blessings of freedom — 

" Resolved, That it be recommended by this convention to 
the legislatures of the several states, where personal slavery 
exists, to repeal all laws in any manner prohibiting the moral 
and religious instruction of the slaves. 

" Resolved, That the proprietors of slaves in the United States 
be respectfully requested by this convention, to encourage, by 
all possible means, the instruction of their slaves in reading, 
and the rudiments of a common English education, together 
with the leading doctrines of Christianity, by Sunday Schools, 
and such other means as may be within their power !" 

Such were the sentiments of this " distinguished coloniza- 
tionist," in 1826, and then equally distinguished in the "Abo- 
lition Societies," for there was, and is, no uncongeniality, as 
these resolutions prove : and most of them were adopted by the 
convention, composed of delegates, from many of the stales of 
this union, appointed by the Abolition Societies. This will 
still be more apparent by the following resolution, which was 
adopted by the convention. 

"Resolved, That this convention would approve of an ade- 
quate appropriation of the public revenue of the United States, 
for the voluntary removal of such slaves, as may hereafter be 
emancipated, to any country, which they may select for their 
future residence." 

Here, then, we have the voice of the assembled wisdom, and 



64 LETTERS TO THE 

philanthropy, of those Manumission and Abolition Societies, of 
the first of which, your venerable father was the president. And 
let me ask you, sir, how you could persuade yourself, to repre- 
sent the present Anti-slavery Society, as a kindred institution, 
after reading the foregoing preamble, and the several resolu- 
tions, I have adduced ; much less insinuate, as you do, that it 
is a successor in the same objects ? And pray, sir, with these 
"authentic facts," known to you, let me inquire, with what 
consistency, or semblance of truth, do you affirm, that "the 
Colonization Society vindicates the cruel laws, which are 
crushing these people to the dust," and present a " unanimous^ 
vigorous, and persevering opposition, to present manumission," 
and that, "NO MEMBER of the Colonization Society has, hi- 
therto, been rash enough to make the attempt, to recommend the 
free blacks to the sympathy of Christians, to propose schools 
for their instruction, plans for encouraging their industry, and 
efforts for their moral and religious improvement?''' I need 
not tell you, that Colonel Stone was a member of the Coloni- 
zation Society, in 1826,* when, in a convention of abolitionists, 
he thus "made the attempt," "proposed schools," and other 
" efforts for the moral and religious improvement of these peo- 
ple," and presented a powerful appeal against those " cruel 
laws," which you charge the whole of us with ^^ vindicating P^ 
Your candid confession, of " want of information," is the only 
reparation which can ever atone, for this outrage upon indivi- 
dual character, as welLas upon that noble institution, the Colo- 
nization Society, which you so unjustly assail. 

From the report of Mr. Stone's speech, before the conven- 
tion at Baltimore, the following extract is worthy of preserva- 
tion, and is affectionately commended to your candour and in- 
telligence, with the single remark, that it expresses the feelings 
and views of the great body of colonizationists. whom you 
vilify, and is strictly in conformity with the sentiments of the 
society, which you so strangely misrepresent. It is appended 



* He wrote a vindication of the Colonization Society, so long ago 
as 1819, and though he wavered for a time, by reason of the delusive 
hopes of the Haytien project, yet he continues still, with thousands of 
us, to advocate colonization, because he is an abolitionist. 



> HON. WILLIAM JAY. 65 

to an argument, in favour of a scheme of " emancipation and 
colonization,^^ under the patronage of the general government. 

" In undertaking a work of this magnitude, compromises will 
be found as necessary as they were in forming the federal com- 
pact. We must take men as they are, and things as they are. 
And we must move in this business with a full conviction, 
that the slaveholders and slave states must act with ns, in 
this matter. They must give their consent to the emancipa- 
tion of their slaves, and we must offer the inducements. It will 
not do, therefore, to refine too much. And although we do not 
believe it lawful, in the sight of heaven, to hold flesh and 
blood as property, still we must, from motives of expediency, 
€ict as though it were so. We have no disposition to interfere 
with the rights of property, nor with the subsisting relations be- 
tween master and slave. We would not liberate the slaves en 
masse, in their present condition, and let them loose upon this 
community, but would transport them, Avith their own consent, 
if possible, or prepare them to enjoy the blessmgs of freedom 
in some part of our own country. We have not come to the 
south, to scatter firebrands, arrows, and death, but to meet our 
southern friends on neutral ground, and join them in a mighty 
effort to rid them of an evil which they all affect to deplore." 

With the foregoing reference to abolition societies, and ex- 
tracts from the language of a " leading colonizationist," I leave 
them, and him, to the judgment and candour of the reader, who 
may form his own opinion, of your attempt to identify the 
former with the anti-slavery societies, or impute to the latter, 
the destitution of principle of Avhich you accuse him. 

After vainly attempting to identify yourself and your asso- 
ciates with the former " abolition societies," you inadvertently 
refute yourself by admitting that they were for " gradual 
abolition," while you utterly repudiate all gradualism. I 
shall, therefore, w^aive all farther reference to this topic 
at present, and proceed to notice your complaints that the 
" rights" of abolitionists have been invaded by colonizationists. 
And as among the first and most formidable in your list of 
grievances, you have placed Colonel W. L. Stone, editor of the 
Commercial Advertiser, and very frequently in your book al- 
uded to him, and his press I shall here allow him to speak 
7* 



66 LETTERS TO THE 

for himself in reference to the most prominent of the charges 
you so unjustly make against him. I deem this course due to 
that estimable man, whom I regard as a fellow Christian, and 
especially because the Commercial Advertiser, he conducts, is so 
valuable an auxiliary to every good work, that its vindication 
is a subject in which the cause of public morals is largely in- 
volved. I extract the following from the Commercial Adver- 
tiser, of March 24th, 1835. 

" Truly we have fallen upon evil times and evil days. Never 
did we expect to meet with such a book, from the pen of the 
son and biographer of the illustrious John Jay. And such a 
son ! — a man of high political and moral worth — of scholarship, 
and sound integrity. But fanaticism is a contagion, which 
sometimes seizes upon the gifted and the good, as well as upon 
the weak brother, and the bolder hypocrite. Of this truth, we 
have a melancholy instance before us — affording another ex- 
ample of the exceeding virulence of this last species of fanati- 
cism, which, like the cholera among diseases, exceeds in malig- 
nant power all that have gone before it. Why it should be so, 
we know not : but it seems to be the fact, that wherever, and 
upon whomsoever, this spirit of immediate and unconditional 
abolitionism fastens itself, it drives reason from her empire ; 
divests Christianity of all her sweetest charities and graces ; 
sears the conscience as with a hot iron ; and tramples the Divine 
attribute of Truth under foot. Mr. Jay has selected for his 
motto, the following passage from Milton : — ' Give me the 
liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to my 
conscience, above all liberties.' The sentiment is good as far 
as it goes ; but before we shall have completed the present ar- 
ticle, the reader will have reason to regret that the author had 
not governed himself by another maxim, to be found likewise 
in an English poet, yet older than Milton, and equally il- 
lustrious. 

. . " ' In thy right hand carry gentle peace. 

Be JUST, and fear not : 

Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy coimtry's, 
Thy God's, and Truth's ; then if thou fall'st, 
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr.' 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 67 

" Had the author selected such a motto, and written in its 
spirit, we should have been spared the pain of writing the pre- 
sent article, — which, from the high regard we have ever enter- 
tained for Mr. Jay, and the affection we cherish for him still, 
notwithstanding the cruel misrepresentations by which we are 
assailed in the volume before us, renders its composition one of 
the most unpleasant acts of editorial duty we have for many 
years been called upon to discharge. 

" A highly valued clerical friend admonished us the other 
day, that the immediate abolitionists in this city were engaged 
in a desperate effort to fasten the responsibility of the abolition 
riots of last summer, upon the Commercial Advertiser, and the 
writer of this article in particular ; and he advised us to be pre- 
pared for an attack, (from a quarter least expected,) which it 
would be necessary for us to meet with firmness and decision. 
The caution was given in relation to the work now before us. 

'' But the information as to the existence of the foul design 
respecting the riots, was not new. It is an effort in which both 
the tongues and the pens of the immediate abolitionists have 
been engaged, with an energy and a zeal worthy of a better 
cause, ever since they themselves, by their own publications, 
and their own acts, spoke those riots into existence, and had 
well nigh perished in thejiatnes of their own kindling. And 
it is in furtherance of this design, that the author has been in- 
duced by evil counsellors, to put forth the volume before us, 
and in which it is melancholy to find, that such a man as Wil- 
liam Jay should appear, not only in alliance with the notorious 
Garrison, but as his apologist — nay. his eulogist ! Equally pain- 
ful, also, and greatly amazing, will it be to the friends of Mr. Jay, 
to find his name in the title of a book, consisting, in a great 
measure, of the unfair and garbled extracts from the publica- 
tions of the Colonization Society, and of others friendly to it, 
or perhaps connected with it, which have for a few years past 
graced the columns of the New-York Evangelist, and such 
scandalous journals, as Garrison's Liberator, and the Emanci- 
pator. And yet such is the fact. The Hon. William Jay, 
strange as it may appear, has been persuaded — it needs no 
familiar to tell by what coterie of pseudo philanthropists — to 
lend his name to such a compilation — accompanying it with 



68 LETTERS TO THE 

remarks conceived in the same spirit of candour, which first 
prompted the system of garbled quotations, for the purpose of 
charging upon the Colonization Society and its friends, the 
maintenance of doctrines, opinions, and designs, which they 
have not only never entertained, but have uniformly and most 
emphatically repudiated. 

" The practice of these abolitionists in this matter, has been 
upon precisely the same principle that the Atheist proves from 
the Bible that ' there is no God^ viz. : by omitting the ante- 
cedent and most important portion of the sentence — ' The fool 
hath said in his heart? It is exactly after that manner, that 
this journal has been treated by the abolitionists in regard to 
the riots of last summer. For instance, when in common with 
a vast majority of the most respectable people in this city, we 
saw to what the perverse counsels of the immediate abolition- 
ists were leading, we should have been recreant to our duty, 
had we not remonstrated. After Garrison's shameful calum- 
nies upon his own country in Europe — uttered, too, in the pre- 
sence of such m.en as Anson G. Phelps, and Thomas A. Ro- 
nalds, of this city, it was easy to foresee that his presence here, 
to form a society in furtherance of his wretched theories, 
would inevitably lead to tumult. The abolitionists were told 
as much — though not in this paper, however, as has been false- 
ly asserted. But they persisted in their course ; and the result 
was such as might have been anticipated, and in some respects, 
as all good men deplored. Nor did they learn wisdom from 
experience ; but from that day, until tlie disgraceful riots of 
July, the course of these misguided people was the same, or 
rather, it was marked, from day to day, with increasing folly. 
The scenes of May, in the Chatham-street Chapel, will not 
soon be forgotten. It was in vain that we protested, over and 
over again, against such transactions, and admonished the lead- 
ers of the consequences in which they would result, and which, 
in a community so highly and wickedly exasperated, no wis- 
dom nor forecast would be able to prevent. 

" The public and ostentatious exammation of the worthless 
instrument. Brown, and the loathsome questions which the 
managers of that wretched, but insulting farce, put to him, 
awakened a storm of popular indignation which could scarcely 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 69 

then be controlled. Afterwards followed the inflammatory lec- 
tures in the chapel ; and in connexion therewith, a notice of a 
fouth of July celebration of the fanaticism, to be held at the 
same place. It occurred to us at once, and not to us only, 
that such a celebration, on such an occasion, when all the 
elements of popular violence would be in motion, would be an 
exceedingly hazardous experiment, and w^e deemed it a duty 
to write and publish a temperate remonstrance against the 
procedure. But as before without effect. The result is knowm. 

" Now we do not pretend to say, that the leaders of the aboli- 
tionists actually designed to bring about those riots. We do 
not believe they did. But their object "was indisputably to 
produce a strong degree of excitement ; and they succeeded, 
by means of their meetings, their inflammatory newspapers, and 
their incendiary handbills, Avritten by one of the principal 
officers of their society, in effecting a higher degree of excite- 
ment than they intended. Still, we concede, that they did not 
really mean to stimulate to riot ; but we are free to say, at the 
same time, that if it Avere our design now, to kindle another 
series of riots, we should, as the most certain method, pursue 
exactly the course which they then pursued. But against all 
these things we remonstrated ; and because we did so, and the 
results corresponded w^ith our predictions, the authors of the 
incendiary publications, and the Chatham-street scenes, which, 
beyond all doubt, caused the riots, turned short about, and have 
from that day to the present made the country ring with 
charges against us, of creating riots fomented by themselves, 
and against the measures leading to which we were solemnly 
imploring and protesting. 

" We now come to the book itself, of which the reader will 
already have formed some idea from what is said, and truly 
said, above. The volume is, from beginning to end, a con- 
tinued attack upon the Colonization Society and its friends — 
filled with acrimonious and illiberal allegations against that 
noble institution, which the author obviously perceives to be 
the * great mountain' in the way of the visionary schemes in 
which he has embarked ; and, as we have already intimated, 
we are sorry to say that he repeats and endorses all the stereo- 
typed calumnies of the Garrison tribe of scribblers, though so 



70 LETTERS TO THE 

often disclaimed and refuted. And in this crusade against the 
society, standing in the relation to it which we have done for 
years past, it was hardly to have been expected that we should 
escape at least a passing notice. 

" In common with many others, therefore, abler and better 
than ourselves, the writer of this article has been selected by 
name, for vindictive reprobation. But we do not murmur at 
the distinction of being thus included in the same denunciation 
with the great and good men of this land — many of whom are 
named in terms which could hardly have been expected from 
the author — a circumstance which can only be accounted for 
by the bewildering mental and moral association to which he 
now belongs. We have no room to go into any detailed re- 
futation of the gross misrepresentations of fact and of senti- 
ment, to be found in this book, and must content ourselves with 
a single example — an example, however, which will fall with 
withering effect upon the work of which it is a specimen. We 
quote the following passage : 

" 'The abolitionists in New-York gave notice of a meeting 
for forming a City Anti-Slavery Society. In reference to this 
notice, the chairman of the executive committee of the New- 
York Colonization Society, Mr. Stone, published in his paper, 
2d October, 1833, the following : 

" ' Is it possible, that our citizens can look quietly on, while 
the flames of discord are rising? while even our pulpits are 
sought to be used for the base purpose of encouraging scenes 
o{ bloodshed in our land. If we do, can we look our southern 
brethren in the face, and say, we are opposed to interfering with 
their rights '? No, we cannot. 

" ' The HINT thus kindly given, was readily taken, and a mob 
of 5000 scattered the abolitionists.' — Jay's Inquiry, pp. 110, 111. 

"Now, what is the inference which the unsophisticated reader 
will draw from this extract ? And w^hat was the inference 
which the author intended his readers should draw from it 1 
Does he not mean, by the use of a little adroit phraseology, to 
charge upon us the passage which he has quoted from the Com- 
mercial of October 2d, 1833, as an editorial article, sanctioned 
by an officer of the Colonization Society, as such ? Does he 
not, moreover, intend to be understood as charging this publica- 
tion upon Mr. Stone, with the express design of creating a riot? 
It cannot be otherwise. The public will understand him as 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 71 

meaning to impute alike the sentiment, the authorship, and the 
base design of creating a riot, to Mr. Stone. ' The hint, thus 
kindly given, &c. Does not Mr. Jay mean to say, that Mr. 
Stone intentionally gave the populace a hint to go and break up 
the meeting ? It cannot be otherwise. What, then, will the 
public think, when informed, that Mr. Stone did not write the 
article which Mr. Jay pretends to quote from him, and that it 
was 7iever published editorially in the Commercial Advertiser 
at all ! 

" What will the public, moreover, say of the conduct of Mr. 
Jay in this matter, when informed of the fact, that in that very 
same paper of October 2d, 1833, the leading editorial article, 
written by Mr. Stone himself, vjas of directly the opposite ten- 
dency, vindicating the right of the abolitionists to hold their 
meeting, and exhorting every person entertaining opposite or 
different sentiments, to keep au-ay ! Nay, more : so far from 
fanning the embers of popular excitement, or writing the para- 
graph imputed to him, Mr. Stone protested strongly against an 
article having obviously such a, tendency, which appeared in 
a morning paper of that day ! Yet such are the facts, and 
the Commercial Advertiser of October 2d, 1833, shall speak for 
itself: — The truth of the matter is — and Mr. Jay must have 
known as much, unless he has been imposed upon, by 

Men that make 



Envy, and crooked malice, nourishment. 

And who ' dare bite the best,' — that the passage quoted by Mr. 
Jay is an excerpt from a communication, published as such, and 
prefaced by the following editorial disclaimer, and expression of 
our own views : 

" From the Commercial Advertiser of October 2, 1833. 

••Anti-Slavery — the Meeting to-night. — By a notice which 
has been published in this, as well as other papers, the friends 
of the immediate abolition of slavery in the United States, are 
requested to meet, this evening, at Clinton Hall, to form a 
'New- York City Anti-Slavery Society.' 

" In one sense, the terms of the notice may be construed into 
a universal invitation of our citizens to atterid the meeting, in- 
asmuch as upon the abstract and naked question of an immedi- 
ate abolition of slavery in the United States, there can be but 
one voice in the community. We are all, to a man, in favour 



72 LETTERS TO THE 

of the measure, provided it can be immediately accomplished 
without danger to the whites, without injury to the slaves 
themselves, without jeoparding the peace and safety of the 
union, and upon the principles of equal and exact justice to all 
men. But viewed in all its bearings, there is a wide difference 
of opinion between those who, par excellence^ profess them- 
selves immediate abolitionists^ and the far greater number of 
our ow^n citizens, equally opposed to slavery, but who desire to 
pursue some rational plan for its ultimate and certain extin- 
guishment, by Avhich the rights and feelings of the slavehold- 
ers shall be consulted, and the condition of the slave improved 
on his emancipation. And as the gentlemen who have called 
the meeting are bitterly opposed to the great majority last de- 
scribed, it is fair to suppose their notice to be exclusive in its 
intention. At any rate, we have so been inclined to receive it. 
Much, therefore, as we lament the calling of such a meeting, 
at this time, and under existing circumstances, yet the right of 
calling it can7iot be questioned. The friends of immediate 
emancipation, regardless of circumstances and consequences 
the most fearful and appalling, have as good a right to their 
opinions^ and to meet, and discuss, and propagate them, as 
we have to entertain and inculcate ours. Hence we have seen, 
WITH REGRET, au inflammatory article in a morning paper, the 
evident design and tendency of which is to produce the attend- 
ance of perso7is not intended to be invited, for purposes of 
opposition, which must result in uproar and confusion. THIS 
IS WRONG. The gentlemen calling the meeting are very 
respectable. They are deeply and sadly in error, according to 
our views of the great question which is now beginning to agi- 
tate the union, with more dangerous throes than at any former 
period. Still, they have their rights, and shoidd be allowed to 
pursue their own measures^ so long as those measures are legal 
and peaceable, without molestation from any source. We, there- 
fore, hope that no persons will attend the meeting, who are op- 
posed to the objects of it, excepting merely as spectators — 
taking no part, and presenting no obstructions, unless the gen- 
tlemen conducting the meeting should feel disposed to present 
an opportunity for free and manly debate. With this brief ex- 
pression of our views, we give place, at the special request of 
tlie writer, to the following communication. 

" With what spirit the author was actuated, who, with this ar- 
ticle before his eyes, dares to accuse us of giving a ' hint,' 
for the purpose of producing a mob, we leave to honest men of 
any party to decide. We do not believe that Mr. Jay has done 
this passage of his book entirely himself; but we do not envy 
the author of the misrepresentation, whoever he may be, the 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 73 

reflections it will one day afford, living or dying. The insinu- 
ation, therefore, amounting, in fact, to a direct and positive 
charge, that the ' hint' was ever given for the assembling of 
a mob, by the editors of the Commercial Advertiser, though 
frequently repeated in the volume before us, is untrue ; and we 
appeal with confidence — not to the garbled quotations or bald 
assertions of the abolitionists — but to the columns of the 
paper itself, from the date of the foregoing article until the dis- 
graceful riots which took place nine months afterwards, for 
proof of our position. 

" We may have occasion to recur to this subject again ; but for 
the present let the foregoing suffice. Meantime, if the author 
' knows the things which belongs to his peace,' he will not 
only lament the publication of such a book, but repent of the 
evil he has attempted to inflict upon us." 

Having thus allowed the Commercial Advertiser, and its 
editor, to speak for themselves, I shall make no allusion 
to the extracts you make from the Courier and Enquirer ; 
for its editor, Mr. James Watson Webb, has never, to 
my knowledge, been identified with the Colonization Soci- 
ety. And from the specimen just furnished of your quo- 
tations from the Commercial Advertiser, I confess I have little 
confidence in the accuracy of your quotations, presuming, as I 
am bound to do, that in both cases, the extracts are among the 
materials furnished you, for writing your " inquiry," for I will 
not suspect you of the perversions, and suppression of the 
truth, of which Colonel Stone has convicted your book. For if 
I believed you capable of the moral obliquity, which such sus- 
picion would imply, not even your name, or reputation, or pro- 
fession of Christianity itself, should have induced me to this 
correspondence? 

It is idle, however, to pretend, that the mobs and riots, of 
which you complain, were occasioned by newspapers, or editors, 
whether justly, or unjustly, styled colonizationists. Every can- 
did and disinterested witness of those disgraceful scenes, must 
have attributed them to other, and far more potent causes. It 
was actions, which speak louder than words, from which the 
mischiefs you deplore clearly originated ; and it is unphilosophi- 
cal and absurd, " to attribute an effect to more causes than are 



74 LETTERS TO THE 

necessary for its existence." And it requires not the spirit of pro- 
phesy to discern, that if there were no Colonization Society in ex^- 
istence, and if all the colonization presses should be silent, the 
same conduct then pursued by your associates of the Anti-Sla- 
very Society, would produce similar results, in any large Ame- 
rican community. But as I have elsewhere, in my " acrimo- 
nious pamphlet," expressed my opinions on this subject deli- 
berately formed, and published under a deep sense of duty and 
responsibility, I forbear to enlarge, since my present convictions 
on that subject remain unchanged. 

I must, however, refer for a moment to the extraordinary pa- 
ragraph on your 112th page, in which, you accuse the socie- 
ty of pouring " obloquy and violence" upon the abolitionists, 
for the purpose of '• iNTiMmATioN." The reason of the alleged 
resort to intimidation is thus expressed : 

"Utterly vain is the hope of maintaining the cause of coloni- 
zation, or of suppressing that of abolition, by discussion" And 
then you add, with a self-complacency, at which even your own 
party must smile, " In every instance ! in which colonization- 
ists have ventured to meet their opponents in public disputation, 
they have invariably retired with diminished strength?'' 

If you did not expect, sir, that in your very name, resides " a 
tower of strength," you might have condescended to have given 
us some other authority for this sweeping clause of your book, 
by naming some one from among " every instance," when pub- 
lic disputation has thus terminated. You do not, surely, pre- 
tend to speak from personal knowledge, of " every instance in 
which colonizationists have ventured to meet their opponents 
in public disputation," and therefore must have given this de- 
cision upon the authority of the Liberator^ Emancipator^ or 
Evangelist. Par nobile fratrum^ sir, I admit, but neither of 
these are distinguished for accuracy, else by repeating their 
dogmas, you had escaped the multiplied mistakes, to which it 
has been my painful duty to direct your attention. In New- 
York, where the fact of Mr. Finlay's annihilation of that mis- 
guided, but excellent man, Mr. Jocelyn, is so recent, and so 
well remembered, this assertion of yours provokes a smile. 
And your " want of information" on this point, has certainly 
obliterated from your memory, the •' public discussion" of the 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 75" 

anniversary week in May last, in Chatham Chapel, in the con- 
secutive meetings of the two societies, the result o-f which has 
been, ever since, visible in the subdued tojie, and " diminished 
strength," of the defeated abolitionists. 

In conclusion, let me briefly notice your attempt to gainsay 
the character of the society as a " religious institution," when 
you ask, " In what sense can the society be termed a religious 
one?" I answ^er, because it originated in "humanity and be- 
nevolence to the oppressed ;" — was founded after solemn and 
united prayer, for the divine guidance, by Finlay and his asso- 
ciates, whose religion prompted them to this good work. That 
it is truly a religious society, may be safely inferred from your 
own showingjW'hen you say, on p. 116, " The Colonization So- 
ciety, unquestionably, comprises ai'asi number of as pure and 
devoted Christians, as can be found in this, or any other coun 
try !" and again, " that 'multitudes of religious men belong to 
the Colonization Society is not denied !" When, then, you 
demand, " in what sense can the society be termed a religious 
one," I refer you to these admissions, by which, as you law- 
yers are wont to sky, you " admit yourself out of court." 

But you next affirm, that it is not professedly founded on any 
one principle of the gospel of Christ. To this,^ it might be suf- 
ficient to reply, that so long as the "golden rule" is one prin- 
ciple of the gospel of Christ, Christian colonizationists repel 
this statement, by declaring, that in colonizing the free people 
of colour on the coast of Africa with their own consent, they 
are "doing unto others, as they would have others do unto 
them," in like circumstances. And in view of that judgment 
to which we are hastening, and of Avhich, sir, you take fre- 
quent occasion to remind us, I am free to declare, that such is 
the "principle of the gospel of Christ," on which my vindica- 
tion of the society is "founded," and by which I am. influ- 
enced in common with thousands of my Christian brethren in 
the north and the south, of my own and sister denominations. 

You tell us, indeed, that the society " extends no one act of 
benevolence towards the free blacks in this country," and here 
you difier, toto ccelo, from your fellow labourer,. Charles Stew- 
art, who says, 

" For the few coloured people who prefer leaving their na- 



76 LETTERS TO THE 

tive country, and emigrating to Africa, it is unquestionably a 
great blessing /" But again, you charge that " the society takes 
no measures to Christianize Africa, but landing on its shores 
an ignorant and vicious population !" And this, sir, is one of 
the most unaccountable assertions in your unaccountable book. 
After the published testimony o'' British and American visitors 
to Liberia, touching the general character of the colonists, and 
with the knowledge you must have of the pious Christians, and 
devoted ministers of the gospel, Avhom the society have sent 
out among the emigrants, I marvel that you should hazard your 
reputation on such a declaration, that it " takes no measures to 
Christianize Africa, but landing a vicious population on its 
shores." I might point you to the " measures" it has taken to 
promote schools, and the building of churches, in the colony, as 
Avell as the fa<iilities the society offers to Christian missiona- 
ries of all denominations, and for which it has received the 
grateful expression of thanks from more than one board of 
foreign missions. And I will only add, that the expedition of 
select emigrants, which lately sailed from New-Orleans, is, of 
itself, an ample refutation of the accusation of only " landing 
an ignorant and vicious population on the shores of Africa." 
Allow me again to introduce the contradiction given to you 
here by that same Charles Stewart, to whom allusion has been 
made, and who is, even now, itinerating through the north and 
east, as a British agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 
who says, 

" The highest praise of the Colonization Society, and a 
praise which the writer cordially yields to it, is the fact, that 
It forms a new centre, whence, as from our Sierra Leone, and 
the Cape of Good Hope, civilization and Christianity are ra- 
diating through the adjoining darkness. In this respect, no 
praise can equal the worth of these settlements I" 

But lastly, you add, that "it employs no missionary, it sends 
no Bible, and it cannot point to a single native converted to the 
faith of Jesus through its instrumentality." That the society 
is exclusively devoted to the single object of colonization, is, of 
itself, an ample reason, why it should not depart from its ap- 
propriate sphere, yet, " through its instrumentality," a great 
many missionaries have been sent by the societies, devoted to that 



HON. WILLIAM JA.Y. 



77 



department, as the names of Cox, Laird, Cloud, Wright, 
Spaulding, Seys, and Pinney, among the whites, beside a num- 
ber of coloured missionaries, and male and female teachers of 
both classes, abundantly prove. Bibles, too, have been sent by 
the American Bible Society, and the Methodist Episcopal Bi- 
ble Society, for the use of the colonists ; and the British and 
Foreign Bible Society have availed themselves of the instru- 
mentality of the society for the benefit of the natives, as the 
following extract of a letter from Governor Pinney will show, 

" Several hundred Bibles and Testaments in the Arabic lan- 
guage, have arrived here from England, very lately, a present 
from the British and Foreign Bible Society. They will give 
light to many a benighted soul. Some half a dozen were sent 
to king B. and other chiefs, with the commissioners." 

TIrus has your "want of information" placed you, sir, again 
in an unenviable position, since, in the face of such authentic 
facts, you talk of " no missionary" and " no Bible," in order to 
prove the society to be " decidedly anti-Christian !" Whe- 
ther any single native has been " converted through the instru- 
mentality of the society," which you deny, may be judged by 
the letters of the Rev. Mr. Seys, already before the public, and 
by the following extract from Mr. James Eden's letter to the 
ladies of Philadelphia. 

" I am happy to inform you, that the Methodist people among 
the Eboes, [^natives.^ have erected a log meeting house, and 
now occupy it for public worship. During the evenings of the 
week, as you pass among their humble dwellings, you may hear 
the voice o^ prayer and 'praise to God, in sweet and frequent 
concert, from many a lowly hut." 

Whether any of these are truly converted, can only be decided 
at the judgment of the great day, but if there are, or ever 
should be, any natives converted, it is, or will be, effected, 
through the instrumentality of the society, though itself " em- 
ploys no missionary, and sends no Bible." 

And now. sir, let me ask how you can screen yourself from 
"the imputation of bigotry or prejudice," if, with these facts 
before you, you did not scruple to say that " the general influ- 
ence of the society is decidedly anti-Christian /" And how do 
you reconcile it either with your character or conscience to say, 



78 LETTERS TO THE 

that this anti-Christian society contains ^''multitudes of reli- 
gious men," and '■''unquestionably^ comprises a \\3t number 
of as pure, and devoted Christian Sj as can be found in this, or 
any other country?" 

In reply to your concluding address to the " Christian mem- 
bers" of this anti- Christian society, I would affectionately say, 
that long before your book admonished us, such have been led 
" to pause, to examine, and to pray," and the result has been, 
that they are colonizationists still. In the language of Gerrit 
Smith, Esq., thousands of kindred spirits exclaim — 

" If nothing short of the unconditional destruction of the Co- 
lonization Society can appease your implacable malevolence 
towards it, know, then, that its friends are as determined as its 
foes. Our determination is fixed — fixed as the love of God, 
and the love of man in our hearts — that the Colonization So- 
ciety, under the blessing of Him who never, even "for a small 
moment, has forsaken it," shall continue to live — and to live 
too, until the wrongs of the children of Africa amongst us are 
redressed, until the slave-trade has ceased, and the dark coasts 
which it has polluted and desolated for centuries, are over- 
spread with the beautiful and holy fruits of civilization, and 
the Christian religion. And, as we fear the judgments of hea- 
ven on those who commit great sin, so we dare not desert the 
society, and leave Satan to rejoice over the ruin of all this 
'• work of faith and labour of love." 

Finally, let me repeat the reasonable and salutary advice of 
Gamaliel, to all who unite with you in your " war of extermi- 
nation" against the Colonization Society. 

" And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let 
them alone, for if this counsel, or this work, be of men, it will 
come to nought, but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, 
lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." 

With due respect, 

Yours, &c. 



BON. WILUAM JAY. 



71 



PART II. 



LETTER XI. 



Sir, 
I COME now to your second part, in which you treat of ine 
American Anti-Slavery Society. I have elsewhere attempted 
to show that this society is " Anti- American in its very na- 
ture," by the unanswered argument, that " the liberty of the 
free is not more amply guarded, and fully secured, than is the 
slavery of the enslaved, by the laws of the land," and that an 
anti-liberty society might, with equal propriety, arrogate the 
name of American. You will understand me to regard the 
society only in the light of its own constitution, which you 
quote, in which we are told, in the second article, that its " ob- 
ject is the entire abolition of slavery, in the United States," or, 
as it is expressed, in the same article, " immediate abolition, 
without expatriation." And as you have attempted to identify 
this society, with the gradual abolition societies, with which 
your illustrious father was associated, I invite your attention to 
the evidence furnished in his biography, writteii by yourself, 
that you have unconsciously, and inadvertently, done injustice 
to the memory of your revered parent. Let me assure you, sir, 
that no unkind feelings to yourself, mingle in this efibrt to con- 
trast the opinions of John Jay, the father, with those of William 
Jay, the son, since both were, doubtless, equally conscientious 
in their views of duty ; but my only aim is, that the American 
people may be disabused of the use made of his distinguished 
name, and choose between the contrary sentiments of the 
father and the son. 



60 LETTERS TO THE 

And here iet me refer you to a remarkable mistake, in your 
late publication, on the 146th page, when you ask, 

" Did John Jay forfeit the confidence of his countrymen 
when, during the revolutionary war, he asserted, ' till America 
comes into this measure,. (abolition of slavery,) her prayers to 
heaven, for liberty, wilt be impious?'** 

For the correction of this mistake, let me now refer you to 
another work, entitled, "Life of John Jay, by his son William 
Jaij.''^ vol. i. page 229, in which the sentence quoted, reads 
thus: 

" An excellent law might be made for New-York, out of the 
Pennsylvania one, for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till 
America comes into this measure, (gradual abolition,) her 
prayers to heaven, for liberty, will be impious. This is a strong 
expression, but it- is ]wA. Were Tin your legislature, I would 
prepare a bill for the purpose (of gradual abolition) n-ith great 
care^ and I v/ould never cease moving it, till it became a law, 
or I ceased to be a member." 

Here is the unsophisticated sentiment of John Jay, as re- 
corded with your own hand, in 1833. But how strange, that 
in 1835, w^ith that same hand, you should inadvertently pervert 
it to express, not merely a different, but an opposite opinion, for 
you introduce it in a vindication of immediate abolition, with 
which it is totally irrelevant. 

This sentiment of your excellent father, which he calls, a 
'- strong expression," is that of nearly every colonizationist in 
the land, and the society is engaged in the very spirit he pro- 
fessed, labouring " for the purpose with great care,'''* a fea- 
ture which ifA^3 son ridicules and condemns, as being the dictate 
of "expediency." 

But as you lay great stress upon the fact, that your venerable 
father presided over the first society ever formed for the " aboli- 
tion of slavery," in 1785, though you admit, that it " advocated 
gradual abolition," allow me to refer you to the same life of 
Jay, vol. i. page 231, for the title of that society which was, 
" The society for promoting the manumission of slaves, and 
protecting such of them as have been, or may be, liberated." 

Now it is plain. that. there is no one point of parallel between 
this society, and that to which you attempt, a fcrced., Jtnalogy, 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 81 

and though it undoubtedly exercised a moral influence in pro- 
moting voluntary, and gradual abolition, yet, in this respect, it 
precisely resembles the Colonization Society : and for the 
same proscribed reason of " expediency," the name and object 
of the society does not recognize abolition, as the direct action 
which it should exert, but, like our institution, it relied upon the 
moral influence which should be consequent on its success. 

I must suppose, sir, that when you published the life of your 
father, in 1S33, you had not yet been innoculated with " imme- 
diate abolitionism," much less did you intend to become the 
vindicator of the American Anti-Slavery Society, or contem- 
plate the denunciation of the American Colonization Society, 
within two years afterAvards. And, if I err in this supposition, 
you will, at least, admit that it is a very natural one on my 
part, since the former work furnishes facts, and arguments, in 
relation to John Jay, which place his son, William Jay, upon 
the antipodes of the present controversy; for I hesitate not to 
say, that the extracts I shall make from your own biography of 
your father, will prove an able and triumphant vindication of 
the Colonization Society, its principles, and practice. At the 
same time, these extracts will show the estimate which John Jay 
would have formed of the Anti-Slavery Society, had he lived, 
to witness its origin. That he would have deplored the present 
vindication of the latter, and aspersion of the former, and espe- 
cially by his son and biographer, cannot admit of a doubt. 

To a few of these extracts, let me noAV invite your attention. 
And first, did John Jay believe with the Anti-Slavery Society, 
that " slaveholding was a heinous crime in the sight of God V 
Let us turn to his biography, and we shall answer this question, 
on your own authority ? In vol. i. p. 230, we learn, that in the 
year 1779, he purchased a negro boy at Martinico, named Be- 
noit, and that nine years afterward, he executed a formal man- 
umission of this negro boy, on condition of a continuance to 
serve his master "Avith a common and reasonable degree of 
fidelity, for three years from the date hereof, he shall ever af- 
terward be a free man." And, as the date of this document is 
March 21st, 1784, it is manifest, that this boy continued in 
slavery until two years after Mr. Jay became the president of 
the Manumission Society. 



62 LETTERS TO THE 

But let me now direct your attention to page 235, of thig 
same volume of the biography of John Jay, in which we find 
the following fact, by which it appears, that he continued to 
purchase and hold slaves^ 13 years afterwards. 

'• In the year 1798, John Jay being called on by the United 
States Marshal for an account of his taxable property^ he ac- 
companied a list of his slaves with the following observations : 

" I purchase slaves, and manumit them at proper ages, and 
when their faithful services shall have afforded a reasonable re- 
tribution."* 

How many slaves he held, and whether he continued to be 
a slaveholder until the abolition of the system from the state, 
does not appear. But surely, he did not then believe " slave- 
holding to be a heinous crime in the sight of God ;" much less 
would he have relished the denunciation of anti-slavery orators 
and preachers, as being guilty of ^^ robbery, piracy, and 
murder !" 

On the same page, we find three sentences worthy of preser- 
vation. The first is from yourself, in which you say of the 
Manumission Society, over which your father presided, 

'■ The society neither expected, nor attempted to effect, any 
sudden alteration in the laws relating to slavery, but its exer- 
tions were directed to the protection of manumitted slaves, and 
lo the education of coloured children." 

Now, contrast this w4th your reprobation of those very 
'"laws," and your argument for their immediate " instant abo- 
lition," and you will be ashamed of your attempted analogy 
between those societies and that whose cause you espouse. 

The second extract from this page, is from John Jay, who 
speaks of the utility of that society in promoting gradual aboli- 
tion, and gives his "picture of American slavery," which is 
vastly unlike yours : 

" Manumissions daily become more common among us, and 
the treatment which slaves in general meet with, in this state, 
is very little different from that of other servants." 

But a third extract, is from your own testimony, in reference 



* This is what the first annual report of the American Anti-Slavery 
Society calls a " wretched mockery of justice," 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. oS 

to the ^^ necessity" imposed upon your father, to "purchase 
slaves ;"— though on pp. 97 and 98 of your present work, you 
call this " necessity" the " tyrant's plea,'' for '" trampling 
upon human rights, and outraging the plainest principles of 
justice and humanity.'' But let us attend to the extract. 

" As free servants became more common, he, (John Jay,) was 
gradually relieved from the necessity of purchasing slaves ; 
and the two last which he manumitted, he retained for many 
years in his family, at the customary wages." From this, we 
learn, that if free servants had not become more common, this 
necessity to purchase slaves would have continued, nor would 
he have been even " gradually relieved" from it. If this be 
not an " apology for slavery" in the south, where free servants 
are not common, none has ever been given by colonizationists, 
and I marvel that you should have so soon forgotten it, in con- 
demning this " tyrant's plea." 

The following merited tribute to your honoured father, on 
page 232, vol. i. of his life, is a striking exhibition of the wis- 
dom of the efforts for gradual abolition, which you so violently 
denounce ; 

" It was only by sloiD degrees, and through the patient and 
persevering efforts of Mr. Jay, and a few other zealous pio- 
neers, that the obstacles which retarded the progress of free- 
dom, were gradually removed, and slavery exterminated from 
the soil of New-York." 

What a reproof to the theory of immediate abolitionism have 
you here furnished, and how conclusively have you refuted in 
1833, th€ book you have written in 1835. 

Some idea of the slow and gradual progress of abolition, in 
our own state, may be gathered by the following extracts from 
vol. i. pp. 3S9 and 396. I invite your attention to the Avords' 
italicised, as evincing that John Jay wisely adopted the policy 
of expediency, which you reprobate in your present book, as in- 
volving a " lamentable compromise of principle." 

" When we recollect the sentiments uniformly avowed by 
Governor Jay in relation to slavery, it may seem singular that 
no proposition for its abolition was contained in his speech. It 
was no doubt omitted from the conviction that, in the present 
state of politics, such a proposition emanating from him, would 



34 LETTERS TO THE 

enlist the spirit of party in opposition to a measure, against 
which the prejudices of a large portion of the community were 
already arrayed. He, therefore, deemed it most prndent that 
the measure should originate with the legislature. Accord- 
ingly, a few days after the commencement of the session, a 
member of the lower house, and an intimate friend of the go- 
vernor's, asked leave to introduce a hill for the gradual aboli- 
tion of slavery. This request, which is usually granted as a 
matter of course, was unexpectedly resisted, and leave was 
jSnally given by a small majority. The vote evinced the strong 
repugnance felt by the house, even to take the subject into con- 
sideration. The bill underwent a protracted discussion, and 
was ultimately defeated by a resolve, that it would be unjust to 
deprive any citizen of his property, without a reasonable pecu- 
niary compensation, at the expense of the state. It was well 
understood by all, that on this condition, it was impracticable 
to abolish slavery ; and no further attempt to carry the bill was 
made during the session. An important point had, however, 
been gained by its introduction. The discussion had awakened 
public attention to the subject, and the friends of justice and 
humanity were well assured, that the more the evils of slavery 
were exposed, the sooner would the public demand its extinc- 
tion." Vol. i. p. 389. 

" In January, 1797, the legislature again assembled, and a 
bill was brought into the senate for the gradual abolition of 
slavery. The opposition to this bill was less open than that 
which it had experienced in the other house the preceding 
winter, but it was not, perhaps, less insidious. Its considera- 
tion was postponed from time to time, by a hostile majority, till 
the session expired without a vote being taken on its merits." 
" Vol. i. p. 396. 

To show that John Jay had not changed his opinions, as late 
as 1819, I refer you to page 452 of his Life, vol. i., where he 
says, in a letter to Elias Boudinot, " I concur in the opinion 
that slavery ought to be gradually diminished, and finally 
abolished, in all the states." And this was two years after he 
and others, had been successful in effecting gradual abolition in 
the state of New-York. 

But I would now invite your attention to the negociations of 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 85 

Jokn Jay, and the provisions of the treaty he made with Great 
Britain, for proof that he regarded slaves as property^ which you 
regard a high crime and misdemeanour in the Colonization Soci- 
ety and its friends. The following sentence will be sufficient 
for my purpose, though many more might be furnished to the 
same purpose. 

" The treaty stipulated that his Britannic Majesty should 
Avithdraw his armies, &c. without carrying away any negroes 
or other property of the American inhabitants." Vol. i. 
p. 327. And by a paragraph in vol. ii. p. 221, we learn that 
the negociation terminated in the recovery of the value of 
" those negroes who were bonajide the property of American? 
when the war ceased." 

In vol. ii. p. 317, we have a correspondence between Wilber- 
force and Jay, on the subject of the slave-trade, in which refer- 
ence is had to the " African Institution," with the Duke of 
Gloucester at its head, many members of both houses of par- 
liament. &.C. for the single object of "promoting civiliza- 
tion and improvement in Africa;" and it will be seen, that 
Mr, Jay applauds the society for the precise reason, that 
multitudes in this country rejoice in the Colonization Society. 
He says, 

" The patrons of the African Institution, certainly do honour 
and will probably do more than ordinary good to Britain, 
against whom complaints have ascended both from Asia and 
Africa. It is pleasing to see a nation kindly extending the 
blessings of Christianity and civilization to Africa." 

But the following letter, as you inform us, from the pen of 
John Jay, to the British Abolition Society, is also found on page 
232, vol. i., and will be found to express the precise sentiments 
of colanizationists against which you declaim as giving evi- 
dence that they are governed by " expediency instead of prin- 
ciple," that they "excuse and justify slavery," and it contains 
in the strongest language, the conviction of its author, that im- 
mediate abolition could not rationally be expected. He writes 
like a statesman who knew and loved his country, and felt the 
delicacies and difficulties of the Subject, in view of " local in- 
terests and local prejudices," which he acknowledged to be enti- 
tled to respect, because of "the importance of union," for any 
9 



86 LETTERS TO THlE 

measure of success. It will be seen with what gentleness an4 
point, he rebukes the British for their interference, by remind- 
ing them kindly of their own national participation in the op- 
pression, while he deplores that of his own country, and attri- 
butes it to the "particukr circumstances in several of the 
states." He alludes to the fact^ that slavery has become " in- 
corporated in the civil institutions and domestic economy of a 
whole people, and though an error^ difficult to eradicate." How 
different from the sentiments, language, and spirit of his son, 
the reader will judge. 
" Gentlemen, 
" Our society has been favoured with your letter of the 1st of 
May last, and are happy that efforts so honourable to the na- 
tion are making in your country to promote the cause of justice 
and humanity relative to the Africans. That they who know 
the value of liberty, and are blessed with the enjoyment of it, 
oright not to subject others to slavery, is, like most other moral 
precepts, more generally admitted in theory than observed in 
practice. This will continue to be too much the case while 
men are impelled to action by their passions rather than their 
reason, and while they are more solicitous to acquire wealth 
than to do as they would be done by. Hence it is that India 
and Africa experience unmerited oppression from nations who 
iiave been long distinguished by their attachment to their civil 
and religious liberties ; but who have expended not much less 
blood and treasure in violating the rights of others^ than in de- 
fending their own. The United States are far from being irre- 
proachable in this respect. It undoubtedly is very inconsistent 
with their declarations on the subject of human rights to per- 
mit a single slave to be found within their jurisdiction, and we 
confess the justice of your strictures on that head. 

•' Permit us, however, to observe, that although consequences 
ought not to deter us from doing what is right, yet that it is not 
easy to persuade men in general to act on that magnanimous 
and disinterested principle. It is well known that errors, either 
in opinion or practice, long entertained or indulged, are diffi- 
cult to eradicate, and particularly so when they have become, 
as it were, incorporated in the civil institutiojis and domestic 
economy of a wfwle people. 



HON, WILLIAM JAY. 87 

" Prior to the late' revolution, the great majority, or rather the 
great body of our people, had been so long accustomed to the 
practice and convenience of having slaves, that very few 
among them ever doubted the propriety and rectitude of it. 
Some liberal and conscientious men had, indeed, by their con- 
duct and writings, drawn the lawfulness of slavery into ques- 
tion, and they made converts to that opinion ; but the number 
of those converts compared with the people at large, was then 
very inconsiderable. Their doctrines prevailed by almost in- 
sensible degrees, and was like the little lump of leaven which 
was put into three measures of meal: even at this day, the 
whole mass is far from being leavened, though we have good 
reason to hope and to believe that if the natural operations of 
truth are constantly watched and assisted, but not forced and 
precipitated, the end we ALL aim at will finally be attained in 
this country. 

" The convention who formed and recommended the new 
constitution had an arduous task to perform, especially as local 
interests, and in some measure local prejudices, were to be 
accommodated. Several of the states conceived that restraints 
on slavery might be too rapid to consist with their particular 
circumstances J and the importance of union rendered it neces- 
sary that their Avishes on that head should, in some degree, be 
gratified. 

" It gives us pleasure to inform, you, that a disposition favour- 
able to our views and wishes prevails more and more, and that 
it has already had an influence on our laws. When it is con- 
sidered how many of the legislators in the different states are 
proprietors of slaves, and what opinions and prejudices they 
have imbibed on the subject from their infancy, a sudden and 

TOTAL STOP TO THIS SPECIES OF OPPRESSION IS NOT TO BE EXPECTED. 

" We will cheerfully co-operate with you in endeavouring to 
procure advocates for the same cause in other countries, and 
perfectly approve and commend your establishing a correspon- 
dence in France. It appears to have produced the desired effect ; 
for Mons. De Warville, the secretary of a society for the like 
benevolent purpose at Paris, is now here ; and comes instructed 
to establish a correspondence with us, and to collect such infor- 
mation as may promote our common views. He delivered to 



88 LETTERS TO THE 

our society an extract from the minutes of your proceedings, 
dated Sth of April lastj recommending him to our attention ; 
and upon that occasion they passed the resolutions of which the 
enclosed are copies. 

" We are much obliged by the pamphlets enclosed with your 
letter, and shall constantly make such communications to you 
as may appear to us interesting. 

" By a report of the committee for superintending the school 
we have established in this city for the education of negro child- 
ren, we find that proper attention is paid to it, and that 
scholars are now taught in it. By the laws of this state, mas- 
ters may now liberate healthy slaves of a proper age without 
giving security that they shall not become a parish charge ; and 
the exportation, as well as importation of them, is prohibited. 
The state has also manumitted such as became its property by 
confiscation ; and we have reason to expect that the maxim, 
that every man, of whatever colour, is to be presumed to he 
free until the contrary he shown, will prevail in our courts of 
justice. Manumissions daily hecom,e more common among us ; 
and the treatment which slaves in general meet Avith in this 
state is very little different from that of other socities. 
" I have the honour to be, gentlemen, 

" Youi humble servant, 
" John Jay, 

" President of the Society for promoting the Manumission of Slaves." 

You here add, 

'• The society neither expected nor attempted to effect any 
sudden alteration in the laws relating to slavery, but its exer- 
tions were chiefly directed to the protection of manumitted 
slaves, and to the • education of coloured children. Mr. Jay 
continued at the head of the society until he became chief jus- 
tice of the United States, when, thinking it possible that ques- 
tions might be brought before him in which the society was in- 
terested, he deemed it proper to dissolve his official connexion 
whh it." 

With this exhibition of the contrariety of views between 
father and son, and between your own views in 1833 and in 
1.835, I submit to the reader the decision, which. is entitled to 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 8^ 

the greater confidence, — the late John Jay, chief justice in the 
Supreme Court of the United States, or— William Jay, associ- 
ate judge of Westchester County Court ! 

And as you have yourself furnished the public with the mir- 
ror which reflects this exhibition of yourself, you cannot justly 
complain that I have " held it up to nature." 

With due respect, 

Yours, &c. 



90 LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER XIL 



^■^, 



fclR, 

In the abstract you have given of the " laws relating to 
slavery," in the several states, you have not only falsely attri- 
buted those laws to the Colonization Society, or its influence, 
but after a " picture of American slavery" as seen in these 
laws, you say : — 

" This is the system which the Colonization Society excuses^ 
and which it contends ought to he 'perpetual, rather than its 
victims should enjoy their rights in ' the white man's land.' " 

And here is another specimen of the reckless dogmatism 
with which you assail the victim of your wrath. I have already 
shown, that the Colonization Society does not excuse the sys- 
tem, in any sense in which John Jay does not excuse it, and 
yo4i will not now persist in the latter allegation, for I am per- 
suaded that you had forgotten your own testimony on that sub- 
ject. But when or where does the Colonization Society con- 
tend that the system ought to be perpetual, or when did that 
society call this " the white man's land." You must know 
upon reflection, that these charges have no foundation but in 
your own imagination, and even the authority of your name 
w411 fail in gaining them confidence in any community. 

The description you give of the " principles and designs of 
the abolitionists," would perhaps gain credence, but for the sin- 
gle fact, that they have avowed " principles and designs" essen- 
tially different in their own publications, and the public there- 
fore cannot receive your testimony on that subject, while your 
" want of information" is so apparent. And here you cannot 
object to the application of the lex talionis, and therefore I in- 
vite your attention to the evidence furnished by the official pub- 
lications of the American Anti-slavery Society, holding that soci- 
ety responsible only for such, though,! might justly insist upon 
all the abominable sentiments which from time to time have 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 91 

disgraced the columns of the Liberator, Emancipator, Evange- 
list, et id omne genus. 

Now you represent th.esQ. innocent abolitionists as only affirm- 
ing that slavery is sinful, to which you know the Colonization 
Society virtually subscribe, when they call it a " moral evil" 
and John Jay, Avhen he calls it an '• errors But what says 
their constitution. 

" Slaveholding (not slavery) is a heinous crime in the sight 
of God." And instead of " arguments addressed to the under- 
standings and consciences of their fellow citizens, to convince 
them of the duty and policy of immediate emancipation," as 
you say on p. 136, the constitution proves, that it is to convict 
them of this '"'heinous crimey''^ that these arguments are used. 
See article ii. 

But again you say, " the means- by which the society will en- 
deavour to secure to the blacks, an equality of civil and reli- 
gious privileges, are frankly avowed to be, the encouragement 
of their intellectual, moral, and religious improvement, and 
the removal of existing prejudices against themy But what 
are the means which their first annual report proposes for this 
object ? Let us see. 

'' Let some of our higher institutions of learning trample on 
the cord of caste ! and open their doors to all, without distinc- 
tion of complexion .'" 

" Let it be the glory of our sons and daughters, to have been 
educated in seminaries which were open to worthy applicants, 
witJwut regard to complexion .'" 

But you seem to have forgotten . the means* which are em- 

* Among the means used by the Anti-Slavery Society, and its 
friends, for the promotion of their objects, is their proposed exclusion 
of Christian Ministers from their pulpits, and the like exclusion of 
Christian prof essors from the ordiminces of the Lord's house, by making 
slaveholding a test of communion, in the northern churches. This 
unscriptm'al measure is not only advocated in the anti-slavery press, 
but has been actually introduced into several of the professed churches 
of Christ in the City of New-York, and elsewhere, and is strenu- 
ously recommended to the adoption of all the churches in the non- 
slaveholding states. 

By such means, it is expected to alienate ministers from the people 
of their charg •, distract and divide churches, alienate the affection 
and confidence of northern from southern Christians, and thus, to 



92 LETTERS TO THE 

ployed throughout your book, and in which all the funds of 
your society, and all the eloquence of your agents, have been 
expended. The whole army of immediate abolitionists have 
adopted, as their motto, the title of Mr. Cropper's book, " Tlie 
extinction of the American Colonization Society, the first 
step toward the abolition of slavery. ^^ This is the means on 
which you all build your hopes, and to which you concentrate 
your efforts, and yet you have entirely overlooked the " over- 
throw of the colonization delusion," in y.our exposition of the 
means used for the attainment of the objects of abolitionists. 
On page 90 of your own book, you inadvertently avow this 
as the principal means, for you call upon abolitionists to meet 
the Colonization Society v/-ith " unrelenting hostility, and to 
labour without rest, and without weariness, for its entire pros- 
tration ;" and yet, on page 136, you have forgotten all this, and 
in a "frank avowal" of the means used by the society, and of 
their principles and designs, you carefully omit to mention it. 
Is this " principle, or expediency ?" 

But suffer me now, to examine a few of the " arguments ad- 
dressed to the understandings and consciences of slavehold- 
ers,^^ by the Anti-Slavery Society. 

" The truth is, and it must be suppressed no longer, we have 
been hired to abet oppression, to be the tools of tyrants — to look 
on coolly, while 2,000,000 of our brethren have been stripped 
of every right, and worse than murdered .'" — 1st Annual Re- 
port. 

" The man who seizes another in New-York, and drags him 
into bondage^ (alluding to the legal arrest of a fugitive slave, 
under the constitution of the United States,) whatever laws he 



use the language of George Thompson, the British agent of the Ame- 
rican Anti-Slavery Society, who is now propagating his creed of po- 
litical and religious nullification through the northern and eastern 
states, " to split the great Methodist prop," and " the great Presbyte- 
rian prop," to which, he says, " granite is nothing !" and the " great 
Baptist prop," &.c. which, he says, unitedly support slavery in the 
United States. This is one of "the means which Mr. Jay must in- 
clude in those "frankly avowed," and he will scarcely persuade the 
reader to believe, that Mr. Frclinghuysen was in error, when he said, 
they "seek, to destroy our happy union," by all his declamation, or 
sophistry cither. 



HON. WILLIAM JAV. 98 

may have in Ms favour^ is to be regarded as a robber and pi- 
rate !" — 1st Annual Report. 

" Slaveholding is piracy^ equally atrocious with slave-trading ; 
and if there is any difference in criminality, slaveholding is the 
WORST OF THE TWO !" — Speech of Mr. Phelps. 

" The slave states are Sodoms, and almost every village 
family a brothel P^— Speech of Mr. Thome. 

" Jesus Christ was a coloured man /" — Sermon of the Rev. 
Dr. Cox. 

" Suppose the constitution did sanction slavery ? What 
then ? While there is a God in heaven, can we he hound by 
any compacts of our own, or any enactments of our fellow 
worms, to sin against Him ?" — Speech of Rev. Mr. May. 

The following arguments ! are from the " Declaration of the 
Anti-Slavery Convention." 

'• The guilt of this nation is unequalled by any other on the 
face of the earth." 

" Every American citizen, who retains a human being in m- 
voluntary bondage, is (according to scripture) a man stealer .'""^ 

'•AH those LAWS which are now in force, admitting the right 
of slavery, are, before God, null and void." 

And now look at the " arguments'^ of that "much calum- 
niated" individual, as you call him, Mr. Garrison, •' to the 2m- 
derstanding and conscience .'" 

" The Colonization Society is a creature without brains, 
eyeless, unnatural, hypocritical, relentless, unjust.^'' 

" Ye crafty calculators ! ye hard hearted, incorrigible sin- 
ners ! ye greedy and relentless robbers ! ye contemners of 
justice and mercy ! ye trembling, pitiful, pale facedusurpers! 
my soul spurns you with unspeakable disgust .'" 

What a specimen of " great moral principles, frankly and 
unequivocally avowed !" and how powerful must be the effect 
of such " arguments" as these, " upon the understandmg and 
conscience !" And yet, •' such are the principles and designs of 
those who are now designated as abolitionists," who, you say, 
suffer ''unmerited and unmeasured reproach." 

After the reader has perused the foregoing extracts, he will 

* auery 1 Was John Jay a "man stealer," while president of the 
Manumission Societv'? 



94 LETTERS TO THE 

be surprised, that you should have written an entire chapter, to 
prove that the immediate abolitionists are not " fanatics." I 
should not, sir, require any testimony, other than that contained 
in your own book, to convict you, and all the anti-slavery par- 
ty, oi fanaticism.^ before any candid and intelligent jury. It is 
the purest fanaticism that was ever exhibited in the history of 
our race. It blinds the eyes, perverts the intellect, destroys the 
memory, blunts the moral sense, hardens the heart, sears the 
conscience, annihilates the religion of its votaries, and practi- 
cally teaches, that while " slaveholding is a heinous crime," 
" bearing false witness" is no crime at all ! If this be not fana- 
ticism, and of all this, your book affords melancholy demonstra- 
tion, then I know not where it is to be found. 

In your attempted vindication of the Anti-Slavery Society 
from the charge of being '-'■ incendiaries and traitors^'''' you 
quote from Jefferson, Jay, and Franklin, while you must know, 
that each of the sentiments, imputed to them, were expressed 
m favour of '■^gradual abolition," and though you lay great 
stress upon them, they are entirely irrelevant. When, there- 
fore, you attempt to show contrariety between those gentlemen, 
and Messrs. T. Frelinghuy sen. Chancellor Walworth, and Da- 
vid B. Ogden, Esq., you grievously misrepresent them. The 
proof of the charges, made by the three gentlemen last named, 
will be found in the preceding extracts from anti-slavery publi- 
cations. Mr. Frelinghuy sen justly accuses the immediate abo- 
litionists of '"seeking to destroy our happy union ;" — Chancel- 
lor Walworth charges upon them, " contemplating a viola- 
tion of the rights of property, secured by the constitution they 
have sworn to support ; and of pursuing measures Avhich would 
lead to a civil war ;" and David B. Ogden, Esq., declares your 
doctrine of " immediate emancipation to be direct and palpable 
nullificationP These men are your accusers, and you admit 
one of them to be " deservedly distinguished for his piety^ ta- 
lents, and station ;" another, to be one of our ^^most estimable 
citizens ;" and the third, to be " a gentleman whose legal emi- 
nence, and purity of character^ justly give to his opinions pe- 
culiar weight ;" and yet you hope to gainsay such' evidence, by 
the bare assertion, that they make " charges unsupported by a 
particle of testimony .'" 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 9&» 

Surely your abolitionism has placed you, sir, in an unenviable 
predicament, when you are constrained, in self-vindication, to 
hold up such men as these are, by your own showing, to the in- 
dignation of your fellow citizens and fellow Christians. And 
ought you not to " pause, to ponder, and to pray," lest, haply, 
you be yourself withering beneath that very fanaticism which 
you so earnestly disclaim ? Surely, however you may repel 
the charge of political nullification, you furnish palpable evi- 
dence, that your creed nullifies the courtesies of good fellow- 
ship and Christian comity ; and I cannot but regret, that " a 
man, possessing the power to do so much good, should, from 
'want of information,' so grievously misapply it." 

With due respect. 

Yours, &c. 



96 LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER XIII. 

Sir, 

Your chapter on the subject of " Slavery under the Authority 
of Congress," next claims my attention. And as slavery in 
the District of Columbia is a subject almost annually calling 
forth rebuke and remonstrance from various parts of the union, 
and as so large a portion of the public press has been for many 
years occupied with appeals to congress for its abolition in the 
district, you might have spared yourself the details you furnish 
touching this department of the subject, if you had not designed 
to add another to your series of unfounded aspersions of the 
Colonization Society, this unfortunate victim of your relentless 
hostility. 

Year after year have the leading members and friends of the 
Colonization Society memorialized congress to abolish slavery 
and the domestic slave-trade at the seat of the Federal Govern- 
ment, and those who have watched the gradual improvement in 
the temper Avith which such memorials have been viewed at 
Washington, cannot have failed to perceive that until two or 
three years past, the aspect of this interesting and important 
subject has been brightening, and. as is believed by many friends 
in both houses, had the subject continued to be brought before 
our national legislature, unconnected with any violent or offen 
sive attitude on the part of the memorialists, by this time, the 
result so desirable for the character of the nation, and so dear 
to the friends of humanity, might probably have been attained. 
But, alas ! in our evil day, the American Anti-Slavery Society 
has most indiscreetly taken this subject out of other and better 
hands, and, after having laboured to agitate the country by vio- 
lent denunciation, and created among the wisest of our states- 
men apprehensions of a dissolution of the union, by arraying, 
so far as in them lies, the north against the south, and thus 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 97 

rousing prejudices and distrust on the part of those who are so 
circumstanced, that they are morbidly sensitive when the sub- 
ject of slavery is touched in congress, this society has taken a 
prominent part in presenting the late memorial. 

Under such circumstances, it was hardly to be expected that 
the petition would have been disposed of by quietly laying it 
on the table, and the fact that this course was taken, is an evi- 
dence of the forbearance of those who felt keenly in reference 
to the participation, by the Anti-Slavery Society, in getting up 
the petition. This society having rendered themselves obnox- 
ious to a large portion of the members of the national legisla- 
ture, by the character of their publications, in becoming peti- 
tioners for the abolition of slavery in the district, they give to 
that important and desirable object the character of a party 
measure, and, by consequence, alienate those who would other- 
wise favour it. And I have reason to know by personal inter- 
course and correspondence with members of both houses, that 
the friends and devoted advocates of the object, despair of suc- 
cess in its attainment, so long as the Anti-Slavery Society are 
among its prominent supporters. In truth, sir, there can be little 
doubt that the feeling excited by immediate abolitionists 
will for many years delay, if it do not utterly prevent, the suc- 
cess of any future memorial. And if you, sir, desire to 
see the day when slavery shall no longer disgrace the District 
of Columbia, let the influence you have acquired with the party 
by becoming their apologist be exerted to induce them to abstain 
from all interference with the subject, since such interference 
on their part will be mischievous if not fatal to the object. 

But although this measure has long interested the hearts and 
-■called forth the efforts of colonizationists in various parts of the 
country, before the anti-slavery party had awakened from their 
slumbers, yet you say that you "appeal in vain to the benevo- 
lence of the Colonization Society ?" And this too in the same 
paragraph in which you say that " no power on earth but con- 
gress can remedy the evil !" And yet it seems you blame the 
Colonization Society for the legislation of congress, as well 
as that of the states. Let me once more tell you tliat the Colo- 
nization Society, as such, has no authority to interfere in the 
subject, although its members may and do express their opi- 
10 



98 LETTERS TO THE 

nions, and exert their influence individually to rouse congress 
to action on the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia, 
and the late memorial will demonstrate that a large proportion 
of the signers were colonizationists, who did not withhold their 
names from the agents of the Anti-Slavery Society, though 
they feared the effect of that party upon the object. 

You need not then have vindicated your associates from the 
charge of " wild fanaticism," or pretend that they have been 
branded as " traitors and nullifiers " for having endeavoured to 
mfluence congress on this subject, for your own book furnishes 
evidence that the Pennsylvania and New-York Legislatures 
have exercised the same right, and it is one against which there 
is, there can be, no objection, and hence all you have said on 
this subject is perfectly idle. Thousands of colonizationists 
are ready to unite with you in labouring to promote the aboli- 
tion of slavery in the district, if this were your " single object," 
and it would be sufficient to call forth all your energies and all 
your patience too. The cruelties and abominations of the 
" licensed traffic in human flesh," which you depict in strong 
language, as existing under the shade of the Capitol, and the 
reprobation of this disgrace to our common country, I feel to 
be called for, nor do I believe that the members of the Coloni- 
zation Society generally feel less, or are prepared to do less for 
its extinction, than yourself or your associates. On this subject 
we only differ as to the means likely to produce the end. 1 
would continue to expose its enormities, and appeal to the na- 
tional legislature by annual petitions, nor would I cease to urge 
the importance of the subject until congress should be gradu- 
ally prepared for a gradual system of abolition, like that of New- 
York, which was produced in this very way, and has resulted 
in the honour and freedom of the empire state. But I would 
deprecate all rash declamation and intemperate haste, as inex- 
pedient and mischievous, calculated to retard if not totally de- 
feat the object proposed. Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re, is 
th€ motto which ought ever to be present in such an underta- 
king, and must be regarded in order to success. 

But your next chapter on Slavery under State Authority, con- 
tains a defence of the society against the charge of " wishing 
congress to abolish slavery in the states." The disclaimer of 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 99 

this wish was hardly called for, much less the specious argu- 
ment you have attempted, for I never recollect seeing it insinu- 
ated until I found it in your book. And yet you quote from the 
Hon. Daniel Webster, a certificate that he " does not know any 
persons, and is sure there are very few, who suppose that con- 
gress has any power over the states on the subject of slavery." 
Surely this is but a testimony to the intelligence of the north, 
which was rendered necessary only by the impeachment of 
their understanding, which Mr. W. repels. But you must not 
expect, sir, that your readers can be induced by a disclaimer of 
this creature of your own imagination, to acquit the Anti-Sla- 
very Society of nullification, of which Mr. Ogden justly ac- 
cuses it, and for which you load him with obloquy. You were 
never charged with wishing congress to nullify the state laws, 
and your quotations from the reports of the Anti-Slavery Soci- 
ety to disprove this are entirely uncalled for. You are charged 
with being yourselves nuUifiers, without the aid of congress, 
and I respectfully invite your attention to the proof. The fol- 
lowing quotation from the official anti-slavery declaration is 
irrefragable evidence. 

'• All those LAWS Avhich are now in force, admitting the right 
of slavery, are therefore, before God, utterly NULL and void .'" 

Here, I humbly submit, is a " solemn declaration," with " all 
the pomp and circumstance" which a convention could give it, 
of palpable and overt nullijication ! It is both political and 
moral nullification. Suppose any body of men were to orga- 
nize in a similar manner, and issue a " declaration," that " all 
those laws which are now in force, admitting the right [of 
liberty of speech and of the press"] are before God utterly null 
and void" would you hesitate to call such a body of men 
conspirators against the liberty of this nation, or to denounce the 
authors of such an act as nuUifiers 7 And suppose they were 
to defend themselves, by saying, that they never " wished 
congress to interfere with the states !" would this be regarded 
in any other light than adding insult to injury ? The parallel 
is clear, the analogy perfect. 

But another instance of nullification contemplated by the so- 
ciety, and to effect which they do solicit the interference of 



100 LETTERS TO THE 

congress, notwithstanding your disclaimer, and authorities, i? 
contained in this " famous declaration," as follows : 

" We mamtain that congress has a right, and is solemnly 
BOUND, to suppress the domestic slave-trade between the several 
states /" 

Now compare this with the several quotations you give to 
prove that the Anti-Slavery Society would deprecate the "inter- 
ference of congress on the subject of slavery as a violation of 
the national compact." Is it no " interference with the slave 
states in relation to slavery,''^ to " suppress the domestic slave- 
trade between the several states," which the society declare 
congress not only to have a right to do, but to be " solemnly bound" 
"to exercise it." Friend Hubbard and Mr. Gurley, then, have 
some reason to say abolitionists are endeavouring to " cause 
the national legislation to bear directly on the slaveholders," 
and in " a great degree against and in defiance of the will of 
the south?^ If you have never before " seen an attempt to 
prove it," you Avill please consider this a feeble one, and which, 
if I thought it needful, I might strengthen by still further quo- 
tations. I think, however, you will find it difficult to evade the 
force of those here presented, and it is clear, that " Chancellor 
Walworth, and his two associates," have some foundation for 
the opinions against which you so earnestly protest. 

After having abjured the sentiments attributed to your so- 
ciety, to which I have just alluded, you "next attempt a 
justification of the anti-slavery efforts made exclusively at the 
North where there are oio slaves^ And here you have the fol- 
lowing extraordinary sentiment. 

" If it could be foreseen, that no slave in any of the states, 
would ever he liberated through the influence of northern anti- 
slavery societies, there would still remain great and glorious 
objects to stimulate their zeal, to employ all their energies, 
and abimdantly to reward ! all their labours." 

So, then, the labours of the American Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety, and all its auxiliaries, may be " abundantly rewarded," if 
" no slave should ever he liberated .'" This provokes a smile ; 
2,245,144slaves," compelled to live without God, and to die with- 
out hope," and yet a society, professing to be anti-slavery, and 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 101 

having a " single object," the " entire abolition of slavery," " im- 
mediate abolition, without expatriation !" and yet we are told, 
in the first year of its existence, that all its labours would be 
abundantly rewarded, though " no slave in any of the states 
shall ever be liberated !" Surely this " powerful institution," 
would be " very thankful for small favours !" Truly, I have 
always been persuaded, that the " frank avowal" of the 
Constitution of the x\merican Anti-Slavery Society did not ex- 
press its real object, nor could I convince myself, that if they 
were only anti-slavery they would have laboured so long with- 
out having liberated a single slave. But, I confess, sir, that I 
was scarcely prepared for this " frank avowal," though the fact 
does not surprise me, yet I fear you have disclosed it rather in- 
discreetly, and I should not marvel if it were to call forth 
another " disclaimer." 

The reader need not be surprised at this strange inconsis- 
tency, for although called " Anti-Slavery," and its object being 
" immediate abolition," yet it will be abundantly rewarded, 
though no sloxe be liberated, as we learn by this paragraph, if 
it shall only succeed in the great and glorious object, employ- 
ing all its energies, that of counteracting " the baneful influ- 
ence of the Colonization Society at the north !" And the 
•• Black Act of Connecticut," together with "Judge Dagget's de- 
cision," are here referred to as being the subjects, the " imme- 
diate abolition'''' of which will abundantly reward the anti- 
slavery society, " if no slave in any of the states be liberated 
through its injluence .'" You have elsewhere declared " un- 
relenting hostility to the Colonization Society," and instructed 
your associates in the duty of labouring, " without weariness, 
and without rest, for its entire prostration." But I did not 
expect that you would have the " moral courage" to avow that 
this is your chief, if not your only object, and that the Anti- 
Slavery Society is only an Anti-Colonization Society, and may 
receive an abundant reward, without liberating a single slave. 

What then are we to think of the moving appeals you have 
made to heaven and earth, in behalf of the millions of slaves 
who are all " living without God, and dying without hope," while 
you are abundantly rewarded, without giving freedom to one 
of them, if you can only " prostrate" the Colonization Society ! 
10* 



102 LETTERS TO THE 

Let me assure you, sir, that the members of the Colonization 
Society, though they may regard the extinction of the Ameri- 
can Anti-Slavery Society, as a " consummation devoutly to be 
wished," for the sake of the interests of humanity and religion, 
and the regeneration of Africa ; yet no one among them would 
be " abundantly rewarded," if no slave in any of the states 
should be liberated through their influence. Nay, verily, such 
are our convictions of the evil of slavery, and the duty of pro- 
moting its abolition, that I but speak the sentiments of tens of 
thousands, whom you vilify as colonizationists, when I say, that 
we view the system of slavery with " unrelenting hostility," 
and mean to " labour without weariness, and without rest, for 
its gradual and entire abolition." This is our anti-slavery creed, 
and we will never be abundantly rewarded, while within our 
country, or on any other spot of earth, there lives a fellow man 
who calls his brother slave I You, then, and those who think 
with you, are not " anti-slavery enough" for me, and from such 
I turn away, nor would I own as a colonizationist any profess- 
ed friend of the African race, who would consider himself 
"abundantly rewarded," or satisfied in any respect, while a 
single slave remains in involuntary bondage. And although 
the Colonization Society, as such, cannot interfere, and ought 
not, to exert any direct action upon the subject, because con- 
trary to the letter of its constitution, yet the moral influence 
its success exerts in favour of voluntary abolition, is mighty in 
its operation, and successful in its results. 

It is amazing, sir, to your best friends, to discover the un- 
happy evidences of the infatuation of your mind, when you 
could write such sentences as the following, and what is super- 
latively ludicrous, persuade yourself that these are the fruits of 
northern abolitionism. 

" The consciences of southern Christians so long lulled by the 
opiate of colonization, are awakening to duty. Southern 
divines are beginning to acknowledge the sinfulness of slavery, 
and recent slaveholders are no\o proclaiming the safety and 
duty of immediate emancipation. The whole nation has been 
roused from its lethargy, and in almost every circle and neigh- 
bourhood, the subject of abolition is attracting attention ; the 
violence and persecution experienced by abolitionists instead of 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 103 

suppressing, has promoted discussion, and they have reason to 
hope, that slavery will ultimately be abolished, by the volun- 
tary action of the south, in compliance with the dictates of 
policy and duty !" 

What a mighty moral engine is colonization ! How wonder- 
ful that this powerful opiate should " lull the consciences of 
southern Christians and northern divines^'''' and throw this 
" ^chole nation into the profoundest lethargy.'''^ But how in- 
finitely more mighty^ is your anti-slavery antidote ! Already 
Christians, divines, and the whole nation, are "awakening" 
from their " lethargy," and '• beginning" to live ! Had you 
found it convenient to furnish some instances, or even a single 
example, produced by abolitionism in proof of this ridiculous 
conceit, in the shape of a liberated slave, colonizationists them- 
selves would rejoice with you. But alas ! in the absence of 
such proof, you content yourself and immediate abolitionists, 
with hoping that " slavery will be ultimately abolished by the 
voluntary action of the south," in the precise language and spirit 
of colonizationists from the beginning, and in the strongest pos- 
sible terms you abandon iriimediateism^ for gradualism, and 
only hope for voluntary abolition, and this idtimately ! I will 
only add, that this hope needed not the Anti-Slavery Society, 
for in this hope colonizationism " lives, moves, and has its 
being." 

With due respect, 

Yours, &o. 



104 LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER XIV. 

Sir, 

Your next chapter, is on " the Safety of Immediate Emanci- 
pation," which you admit that " many may conscientiously 
doubt." Whether such will have their doubts removed by any 
thing you have written, is even more than doubtful, for in no 
part of your volume do you exhibit more deplorable evidence of 
" want of information," nor do you elsewhere furnish greater 
examples of illogical and sophistical reasoning. 

In all i\ie Jive cases of " immediate emancipation," to which 
you appeal in proof of its safety, there was no semblance of im- 
mediateism in the case, except in the single instance of 
Mexico.* In Chili, Buenos Ayres, Colombia, and New-York, 
every body knows that abolition was gradually effected, and 
yet they are all cited as instances of " sudden abolition," and 
as " facts" supporting your " theory." Indeed you seem to feel 

* In this reference to Mexico, Mr. Jay is convicted of a most calam- 
itous " want of information," or rather inaccuracy of information. 
He says that "the government of Mexico granted insta?ita?icous and 
unconditio7ial emancipation to every slave," and on page 190 he tells 
us that " Mexico abolished slavery, without compcnsatiiig the masters.''^ 
He V7\\\ excuse me for " dispelling his ignorance" in relation to 
Mexico, as he proposes kindly to do for others, in the case of St. Do- 
mingo. 

The facts of the case in Mexico, are exactly the reverse, and as his 
reference to it is unfortunate, so also his reasoning on it is fallacious. 
The slaves in Mexico were "all declared free at once, but were con- 
sidered m (ie^i to their former masters, to the amount of the money for 
which they might have been sold before emancipation, and they were 
obliged to remain on the plantations and labour as formerly, till they 
had paid that debt by their labour ; and a police system was establish- 
ed to enforce this regulation. The amount of it was, that the law 
secured to them the privilege of buying their freedom, which they 
generally accomplished in the course of twelve years !" 

If this is what Mr. Jay calls "instantaneous and unconditional 
emancipation," we should regard it only as another " triumph of grad- 
ualism.'^ 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 105 

that your materials for making this chapter were insufficient, 
and you therefore abruptly terminate it by a reference to the 
" Scenes in St. Domingo," and promise in the next chapter to 
" dispel the ignorance'^ which you say extensively prevails on 
this subject, and confirm the truth of the safety of immediate 
emancipation. I say nothing of the modest insinuation that the 
history of St. Domingo, is a subject on which so " extensive 
ignorance prevails," that you are called upon and prepared to 
" dispel" it. 

I suppose that you will not maintain this charge of ignorance 
against the venerable Clarkson, but will admit that he knew 
nearly as much in relation to emancipation in St. Domingo as 
yourself. Let me direct your attention to his testimony then, 
merely premising that he contended for a '-^preparatory 
schooV^ which fitted the slaves " hy degrees for making a good 
use of their liberty." And adds his testimony in favour of 
gradual emancipation, and utterly disclaims the project of im- 
mediate abolition in the following words. 

" I never stated that our West Indian slaves were to be eman- 
cipated suddenly^ but by degrees. I always, on the other 
hand, took it for granted, that they were to have a preparatory 
school also." Nor does that venerable philanthropist and friend 
of the African race, refer to a single example to show the de- 
sirableness of " sudden'''' emancipation. 

The following paragraph is from an excellent sermon by the 
Rev. Joseph Tracy, and the extracts are made from Mr. Clark- 
son's thoughts. 

" In February, 1794, the directory passed a decree for the 
abolition of slavery in the colonies. Now notice the conditions 
of this emancipation. 1. ' The labourers Avere obliged to hire 
themselves to their masters, for not less than a year ; at the 
end of which, but not before, they might quit the service and 
engage with others.' 2. ' They were to receive a third part of 
the produce of the estate, as a recompense for their labour.' 3. 
After Toussaint, a negro, came into power, about the end of 
1796, he ' took away from every master the use of the whip, 
and of the chain, and of every other instrument of correciion, 
either by himself or his own order : he took away, in fact, all 
power of arbitrary punishment.' He increased the term of ser- 



106 LETTERS TO THE 

vice from one year to five years, and reduced the compensation 
from one third to one fourth of the produce. He ' succeeded in 
making the black labourers return to the plantations, there to 
resume the drudgery of cultivation.' Notice the words return 
and reswne. It appears, then, that the negroes, after what is 
called their emancipation, were obliged to work for the planters, 
at first without the privilege of choosing their masters, and al- 
ways at a price fixed by others, and till the time of Toussaint, 
were liable to be driven to their labours by the whip or some 
'other instrument of punishment,' applied at the discretion of 
their employers ; and the result was such, that Toussaint was 
thought to do wonders, when he made them return to the plan- 
tations and resume their ' drudgery.' Does this prove ' the 
safety, practicability, and expediency of immediate emancipa- 
tion V And do those among us, who advocate immediate eman- 
cipation, mean that our slaves should immediately be put into 
the condition just described?" 

Here then it is demonstrated, that if all you say in relation 
to the scenes of St. Domingo, be admitted, so far from being, as 
you pretend, a " glorious demonstration of the perfect safety of 
immediate and unconditional emancipation," it furnishes irre- 
fragable evidence against your doctrine, since, in this case, the 
abolition was both " gradual and conditional.^'' 

Mr. Tracy proceeds : — 

"Another case mentioned by Clarkson is that of the slaves 
ill Colombia, South America, where a decree was passed, July 
19, 1821, giving freedom to all slaves who had served in the 
armies of the republic, and providing that all born after the 
date of the decree should be free at the age of eighteen. This 
is gradual emancipation, again, on the same principle adopted 
in New York. 

" The last case mentioned by Clarkson, is that of the Hon. 
Joshua Steele, of Barbadoes, of which he says, 'It took him six 
years to bring his negroes to the state of vassalage described, 
or to that state from whence he was sure that they might be 
transferred without danger, in no distant time, to the rank of 
free men, if it should be thought desirable.' ' Immediate abo- 
lition,' truly ! 

" So far, then, not a single instance is found, of the ' imme- 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 107 

diate emancipation' of all the slaves of any country. In every 
instance brought forward by the advocates of that doctrine, they 
were emancipated, not 'suddenly,' but by 'degrees,' as Mr. 
Clarkson maintains they ought to be. Even now, in England, 
a strong effort has been made to procure ' immediate emancipa- 
tion.' They must all be made free in a moment; but accord- 
ing to the bill which the friends of that measure have carried 
through Parliament, that moment is to be several years long. 
Why is this ? Emancipation, we are told, ought not to be gra- 
dual. The demands of justice require that it be done '■ instan- 
ter.^ Accordingly, a bill is brought in, which enacts, that it 
shall be done in twelve years. If gentlemen mean, emancipation 
in twelve years, why do they not say so ? Why agitate the coun- 
try'-, by calling it ' immediate V And why compel us to under- 
stand them literally, by using arguments, which, if they proved 
any thing, would prove that it ought to be, strictly, imme- 
diate ? 

" Indeed, it does not seem, that any body seriously means to 
practice on the theory of immediate emancipation. It is used 
merely for the sake of producing exciteme7it. The Jacobini- 
cal argument is the shortest, and most exciting to shallow 
thinkers, of any yet invented. It proves, however, if it proves 
any thing, that slaves ought to be emancipated, — as Clarkson 
says they ought not, — 'suddenly,' and without any 'preparatory 
school.' And it proves, with equal force, that all slaves, and 
all women, and all children, should at once take part, equally 
with others, in the civil government of the country. And then 
it proves, that if any of them choose not to obey the laws of 
that government, they have an ' unalienable right' to set them 
at defiance." 

Your next chapter is on the subject of emancipation in the 
British West Indies, which, although called by your fellow la- 
bourer, Garrison, nothing but a "triumph of gradualism;" yet 
you refer to it, as in the former cases, to prove that " the eman- 
cipation most conducive to the safety and happiness of the 
whites, is immediate and unconditional," and declare, that as 
the " apprenticeship system" was adopted " contrary to their 
advice, and is inconsistent with the doctrines they profess,'''' 
they are not responsible for its consequences. It is lamentable, 



108 LETTERS TO THE 

indeed, that the ^^ responsibility''^ of abolitionists could not 
have been secured for the " safety" of the colonies, by the Brit- 
ish government, when this vast advantage might have been ac- 
quired by taking their advice and adoptmg the doctrines they 
profess ! I suppose, however, this important measure was in- 
cidentally overlooked by the British government, in their efforts 
to conciliate the West India proprietors, and hence the error 
was committed, of making the emancipation g7^adual, instead 
of immediate, and the right of " property," unfortunately ac- 
knowledged, by the provision for " compensation to the 
owners." 

But you next attempt to urge objections against gradual 
abolition, " on the ground of mere political expediency," alleg- 
ing that while this process was unexceptionable in New York, 
yet it would be dangerous in South Carolina, " for the weight 
of the objections to gradual emancipation," you tell us, is "pro- 
portioned to the number of slaves to be emancipated," compa- 
red with the white population. But you lose sight of the rea- 
sons which influenced John Jay, that profound and sagacious 
statesman, to labour in behalf of gradual abolition in New 
York,* where there were so few slaves, and which prevented 
him, even under these circumstances, from ever dreaming of 
immediate abolition. And if those reasons had any weight in 
New York, by what process of sophistry can you deceive your- 
self into the belief, that it would be " safe and happy" to effect 
" instant abolition'''' in South Carolina. 

You significantly ask "what would become of the 10,000 
slaves," if so many were annually liberated in that state, on this 
plan of gradual abolition ? And I ask you in turn, w^iat would 
become of forty times that number, if South Carolina were to 
issue the decree of immediate and unconditional emancipation 7 
As you call the former an " extravagant supposition," " vision- 
ary in the extreme," by what epithet would you designate the 
latter ? And yet you say, that gradual emancipation is so dan- 



* It is a remarkable fact, that the bill for immediately abolishing 
slavery in the state of New York, and which was passed in 1817, was 
introduced into the legislature by President Duer, the respected 
president of the New York City Colonization Society. 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 109 

gerous, that the only alternative is " immediate emancipation 
or continued slavery." You forget the " colonization delu- 
sion," or have probably persuaded yourself, that with the pub- 
lication of your book, the epitaph is written for that powerful 
institution, whose funeral orgies were celebrated at the first an- 
niversary of the American Anti-slavery Society, in May last. 
Know, then, that there is another and a better alternative, and 
learn from the Book of Revelation, that in the Divine economy 
for every moral evil in the universe, there is an adequate reme- 
dy. And believe me, when I assure you, that it is the deliberate 
conviction of many of the most exalted intellects, and the most 
benevolent hearts in this nation, that the American Coloniza- 
tion Society is destined in the order of Divine Providence to 
triumph over every obstacle, and prove itself the dispenser of 
liberty and religion, in interminable blessing upon two worlds. 

The dangers of slavery on which you expatiate in your last 
chapter, are fully appreciated by the Colonization Society, and 
this is a consideration among others, which has been urged by 
its friends from the beginning, in favour of this institution ; 
while at the same time, it is one, w^hich ought to palsy the 
tongue and wither the hand that should be employed to magnify 
or increase those dangers. In my next letter, I shall briefly ex- 
amine this subject. 

With due respect. 

Yours, 



110 LETTERS TO THE 



LETTER XV. 

Sir, 

In this concluding letter I invite your attention to the subject 
of " foreign interference" with the subject of American slavery ; 
the propriety of which, you not only justify, but advocate, since 
you attribute the resistance felt and expressed, against British 
emissaries, to national and criminal "pHc/e/" 

Indeed, this defence of " foreign interference," was necessary 
on your part, as the avowed champion of the American Anti- 
Slavery Society, because of the position that institution noAV 
occupies before the American community. Already have two 
British agents been employed for the purpose of enlightening 
our citizens in relation to their duty to the coloured population 
of our country. The society cannot enlist agents in sufficient 
numbers, or of sufficient popularity, in our own country, and 
therefore, they import British agitators, in the capacity of anti- 
slavery lecturers. The most distinguished of these, is George 
Thompson, sometimes called Rev., and at others, Esq. ; who 
is peregrinating through the northern and eastern states, Avhere 
there are no slaves, and to whom allusion has been made in a 
former letter. Your defence of " foreign interference," may 
probably be regarded as a kind of apology for this feature in the 
anti-slavery tactics, though all this will fail in protecting him 
from the scorn and indignation of every American, whose spirit 
of patriotism is not extinguished by the esprit dii corps, which 
is characteristic of abolitionism. 

Bat it seems, you would not only have your countrymen lis- 
ten to him and other foreign demagogues, but you attempt to 
intimidate the slaveholders, by foreign opinions and British 
threats. And can you deceive yourself by the vain hope, that 
you can frighten Americans by the anathemas of foreigners, or 
bully them into political orthodoxy by British doctrines 1 Why 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. Ill 

else did you introduce the " coarse invective" of that great agi- 
tator Daniel O'Connell, together with other British " arguments 
, addressed to the understandings and consciences of American 
slaveholders ?" I confess, I blush for your degeneracy from 
the principles of your illustrious sire, while I make the follow- 
ing extracts from your book. 

" Mr. Buckingham, member of parliament, lately asserted at 
a public meeting : — 

" The greater proportion of ihe people of En g-l and BKMAISID 
not merely emancipation, but the immediate emancipation of 
the slaves, in whatever quarter of the world they may be 
found.'''' 

When England becomes mistress of the world, her " people" 
may demand what tliey please ; but she and they know Ame- 
rica too well, to press this demand in this "quarter of the 
world !" There is too much of the spirit of '76 and of old John 
Jay yet lingering among our countrymen, to withhold the ex- 
pression of their indignation, at the insult which the repetition 
of such language conveys. 

But again I quote from your book another British argu- 
ment. 

•- Daniel O'Connell, shortly before the abolition of slavery in 
the British dominions, declared in public : — 

" The West Indies will be obliged to grant emancipation, 
and then we will turn to America^ and REQUIRE eman- 
cipation !" 

Prodigious! And the American Anti- Slaver)^ Society and 
its British agent, George Thompson, I suppose, are the chosen 
instrumentality of Daniel O'Connell, now that he " turns to 
America, and requires emancipation." You, sir, and he, and 
they, will require it in vain. Nay, by this very attitude and 
union with such agitators, you close the southern ear, and hard- 
en the southern heart, and blast the hopes of all who labour 
and pray for emancipation. Southern hearts and southern con- 
sciences are accessible to moral suasion ; but while southern 
Americans yield much to courtesy, they will submit nothing to 
intimidation. Nor will they permit interference or dictation from 
any of the other states of this confederacy, as the history of 
this nation has amply shown. Much less will they suffer fo- 



112 LETTERS TO THE 

reigners to meddle with their vested rights, or Englisnmen to 
demand or require any thing at their hands. Having aided 
during our revolutionary struggle in breaking the British yoke, 
their necks will never bend to receive another. I marvel that 
you did not know them better than to quote such instances of 
the consummate arrogance of John Bull, in reading a homily 
on emancipation to American slaveholders. 

But the folloAving disgraceful sentiment of O'Connell, you 
introduce in this connexion, to teach Americans the nature of 
British " public opinion," against which you say, " our fleets 
and armies will be of no avail." And you even threaten the 
citizens of the south that "when they visit Europe they will 
not be admitted to the usual courtesies of social intercourse," 
because of the " temper of the British populace." But let us 
attend to your extract and authority. 

" When an American comes into society," said Daniel 
O'Connell, in a numerous assembly, " he will be asked, ' Are 
you one of the THIEVES ! or are you an honest man ? If you 
are an honest man, then you have given liberty to your slaves; 
if you are among the THIEVES, the sooner you take the out- 
side of the house the better !' " 

And here let me ask you, sir, whether this is one of the " ar- 
guments" of the Anti-Slavery Society, " addressed to the un- 
derstanding and conscience of slaveholders to -persuade them 
to emancipate !" Is this one of the means you are using to 
promote abolition ? Is this the gospel which you are bound to 
" GO ! and preach to every creature ?" And can you persuade 
yourself, that a book containing such language, and exhibiting 
such a spirit, comports with the character of an American 
citizen, much less an American Christian? such as is the Hon. 
William Jay ? 

I am shocked at the state of mind and feeling to which abo- 
litionism has reduced you, sir, when you here record, page 201, 
your expectation, and evidently your desire, that this temper, 
which denominates Americans thieves, in the coarse invec- 
tive of O'Connell, " will, in time, become the temper of all 
Europe^ and indeed, of all the world .'" Pardon me when I 
say, that if your prediction be ever fulfilled, and tlie temper of 
Daniel O'Connell be the temper of all Europe and of all the 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 113 

world, then will civilization degenerate into barbarism, and 
Christianity will have left the earth for a higher, holier abode. 

If this is to be, as you tell us, the result of " the progress of 
liberal principles," in the name of all that is rational in com- 
mon sense, in the name of all that is sacred in religion, I ask, 
whence are those principles derived ? Daniel O'Connell, the 
champion of '• liberal principles" forsooth ? And in the pro- 
gress of these liberal principles "when an American comes 
into society in England," he is to be asked, " are you one of 
the thieves ?" This may be the design and tendency of the 
anti-slavery "principles," but their claim to being "liberal" 
would be truly questionable. And if such be the effect of the 
temper of the British populace, from such " liberal principles," 
all good men should fervently and unitedly pray, '^ Good Lord 
deliver us." 

It is painful to discover that as you proceed toward the con- 
clusion of your " Inquiry," your intemperate spirit of declama- 
tion in no measure declines. Hence you introduce in your last 
chapter the couplet of "slaveholders and colonizationists,^^ 
who, you say, " delight to expatiate on the danger of imme- 
diate emancipation, and to represent its advocates as reckless 
incendiaries ready to deluge the country in blood .'" In no 
part of your own book do you furnish a single instance in which 
the advocates of immediate emancipation are so represented^ 
much less do you attempt any proof that colonizationists delight 
in such representations. When the rash and intemperate pub- 
lications of the party, and the violent calumnies of the entire 
south, are rebuked by showing their pernicious tendency, and 
when the dangers which are justly apprehended from such mea- 
sures are referred to by colonizationists, it is done with pain and 
mortification, instead of " delighf,^^ as your own quotations from 
colonizationists amply demonstrate. 

The dangers to be apprehended from the continuance, the 
increase, and perpetuity of slavery in the United States, is a 
theme on which the Colonization Society has dwelt with far 
more emphasis and effect, than is discoverable in all the writ- 
ings of abolitionists, your own included. To be sure, the spirit, 
temper, and object for which they refer to these dangers, is vastly 
different from yours, and hence they have done so in strong 



114 LETTERS TO THE 

language, without doing mischief or giving oflfence ; and in this 
respect there is a wide difference. You refer to them, accom- 
panying your reference with bitter invective, and for the pur- 
pose of intimidating the south to immediate and unconditional 
emancipation ; while colonizationists allude to them with ex- 
pressions of sympathy and kindness, and with the design of 
convincing masters of the policy and duty of gradual abolition, 
and preparation for ultimate and entire abolition. In all the 
writings of colonizationists no attempt is made to frighten 
slaveholders by such language as you employ on page 198, 
when you say as an argument in favour of immediate abolition, 

" Before they refuse to retreat from the volcano on which 
they are standing, let them look into the terrijic crater which 
yawns beneath them .'" 

The following paragraph of your book claims a specific notice, 
as it aff'ords a specimen of the sophistry by which your self- 
complacency is inspired, and others may be and doubtless are se- 
duced from their principles, and misled into the purest fanaticism. 

" But it is demanded, with an air of supercilious triumph, 
what have northern men to do with slavery, and what right 
have they to interfere with the domestic institutions of the 
south ? And is this question addressed to the followers of Him 
who commanded his disciples to ' go into all the world and preach 
the gospel to every creature V As well might it be asked of the 
Christians of America, what have they to do with the religion 
of Brahma; what right have they to interfere to rescue the 
widow from the burning pile, or the devotee from the wheels 
of Juggernaut ? Christians are no less bound by the injunction 
to ' do good unto all men,' to endeavour by lawful means to 
break the fetters of the slave, than to deliver the victim of Pagan 
superstition." 

So, then, the interference with the subject of slavery, as 
sanctioned by their laws, so justly complained of in the south, 
is here attempted to be justified by an appeal to the Scriptures. 
And a comparison is profanely instituted between the inculca- 
tion of anti-slavery doctrines and the preaching of the gospel 
of Christ ; while the civil, political, and domestic institutions 
of a large portion of the United States, are compared to the 
superstitions of paganism. But where is the warrant from 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 116 

Scripture for preaching against paganism only in Christian coun- 
tries, and creating hostility towards pagan superstition in those 
countries where paganism is not ; and what widow would be 
rescued from the funeral pile by preaching in China instead of 
Hindostan ; and what victim would be snatched from the wheels 
of Juggernaut by anti-pagan lectures delivered in New-York ? 
And if " immediate abolitionism " be the gospel personified, 
as you seem to imagine, why do you not fulfil the command- 
ment you unfortunately quote, "GO ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature !" It is an idle conceit to 
suppose that standing still in the north, and preaching this 
gospel, is to GO into the south ; and if the doctrines of anti- 
slavery be, as you pretend, the very essence of the gospel, its 
preachers are bound to GO into all the world.* It is no excuse 
to say they should be persecuted, for He who commands has 
said, " I send you as lambs among wolves ;" and still He says 
GO, and they who hear and obey can in no wise be released 
from the obligation. But the truth is, that no one in the ranks 
of anti-slavery, whatever he may profess, believes that it is the 
gospel, else he would go and preach where slavery is. Indeed 
you admit it, for you say, " the obligation is imperative, and 
they who duly respect its authority will not be deterred by 
violence or denunciation from obeying its monitions." That 
no one among the hosts of abolitionism act upon this " impera- 
tive obligation,^'' is a practical proof that they are all skeptics 
or unbelievers in their profession of this gospel, else some one 
would say, " neither count I my life dear to me," " I am ready 
to go to prison or to death, for a testimony to the truth." 

* Mr. Jay seems to deceive himself into the belief that he fully dis- 
charges the " imperative obligation " of " going into all the world to 
preach" this gospel, by quietly sitting in his study in Bedford, West 
Chester County, New-York, and writing an anti-slavery book. Suck 
"missionaries" are numerous in the anti-slavery ranks, and if the 
victims of pagan superstition and idolatry in heathen lands can be 
rescued by such " missionary labours," Drs. Coke, Carey, and Mor- 
rison, have spent their lives in vain, and Gutzlaff might be forthwith 
recalled from China, and the salvation of the heathen be accomplished 
by labours, dispensed without danger, or sacrifice of means or of life. 
Alas ! such preaching against paganism would accomplish all that is 
desirable, only as soon as Mr. Jay's book, and preaching his gospel in 
liie north, will effect the abolition of slavery in the south. 



115 LETTERS TO THE 

That such is the spirit and practice of true gospel ministers, 
you will not question, I am sure. The missionary character of 
the church of Christ abounds in examples of self-sacrifice to 
which the gospel constrains its ambassadors, and faith is mighty 
to compel to the discharge of this " imperative obligation." 
Indeed the entire south is now a missionary field, and the mil- 
lions of slaves, for whose temporal bondage your commissera- 
tion is declared, and for the '' instant emancipation " of whose 
bodies you so zealously contend, are included in that world for 
whom Christ died, and to whom he directed his gospel ministers 
to GO. But while anti-slavery preachers, who have truly 
'• another gospel," are deterred from going by apprehensions ot 
"violence and denunciation," the true missionaries of the 
cross, taking their lives in their hands, do go, and will continue 
to go, preaching deliverance to the captives, and the " opening of 
the prison doors to them that are bound." And if they cannot 
deliver their bodies from involuntary servitude, they will labour 
and pray for their spiritual emancipation, that they may enjoy 
the liberty of the gospel, and become "free men and wo- 
men in Christ Jesus." The Missionary Society of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church alone, has scores of missionaries, living 
and dying in this work of preaching the gospel, exclusively to 
the slaves, and hundreds of the ministers of that church are 
labouring in those sections of our country where a large pro- 
portion of their congregations are skives. And this church has 
no less than seventy thousand church members, who maintain 
the Christian character by their walk and conversation, among 
these slaves, who, you say, are " compelled to live without God, 
and die without hope ;" and thus, by one fell swoop, you doom 
them all, and their inhuman masters, to endless perdition ! 
Besides these, there are very many ministers of other denomi- 
nations, who are spending their lives in this work of preaching 
the gospel to the slaves. You have probably seen the " Journal 
of a Missionary to the Negroes in the State of Georgia," which 
has been published in the New-York Observer, and other reli- 
gious papers. That missionary is himself a slaveholder. He 
is devoting his time, his wealth, his life, to the work of promo- 
ting among the slaves, that godliness which is " profitable to all 
things having the promise of this life, and that which is to 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 117 

come." There are other slaveholders, men of wealth, of talent, 
of learning, who have consecrated themselves to this work ; and 
planters are numerous, who welcome these men to their planta- 
tions, and assemble their slaves, to be instructed by them, and 
to unite with them in the worship of God. Extensive associa- 
tions of planters are formed, for the purpose of giving system 
and energy to these operations. 

" The late revivals of religion in the southern states have pro- 
duced a mighty influence in this direction; an influence of 
which, at the south, few are ignorant, and the existence of 
which none dispute. You may learn the fact from their political 
newspapers even. Men there are beginning to feel extensively, 
that the doctrine of our text is true ; that God ' hath made of 
one blood all nations of men,— that they should seek the 
Lord ;' — that he has given them one common nature, and one 
common gospel, to w^hich all ought to have access. They are 
beginning, more and more, to act on this principle ; and it will 
have the same eflect which it had w^hen Paul preached it, and 
men embraced, it at Athens and at Rome ; — it will abolish sla- 
very. If slave laws remain as they are, it will render them in- 
operative, for it will remove all occasion for the use of them. 
If laws need to be altered, it wdll alter them. It will prove 
the Avisdom of God, and the power of God unto salvation, not 
only to the individuals who receive it, but to the community 
Avhich it pervades.-'* 

The following appropriate extract, from the sermon to which 
allusion has just been made, is so much better expressed tlian I 
can hope to do it, that I here avail myself of it as worthy of 
the excellent and benevolent author, to whose head and heart 
these sentiments do equal honour. 

" If it be conceded, that slaves are not a part of those for 
whom Christ died, and do not need to be saved as we do ' by 
the foolishness of preaching,' then it Avill be impossible to 
prove that they have any more rights than any other animals 
for which Christ did not die, or that they have any more claim 
to any emancipation at all, either immediate or remote, than 



♦ Rev. Mr. Tracy's Sermon. 



118 LETTERS TO THE 

our oxen and horses have. But, if they are a part of the human 
race : if the Saviour did indeed shed his blood for them as well 
as for us ; if faith in that gospel of his grace, which they can- 
not ' believe' till they ' hear' it, be necessary to save them from 
eternal perdition, and capable of raising them to perfect and 
endless felicity ; and if, like other men, they are not immortal, 
but are actually dying — going into the eternal world, whether 
prepared or not, every day and every hour ; then certainly it 
becomes us to lose no time in sending them the gospel. They 
need the gospel, more than all things else ; as much more, as 
hell is worse than their present condition, as heaven is better 
than the condition of a free negro in the United States, and as 
eternity is longer than human life- Give them, then, the gos- 
pel. Let those who can, encourage, and aid, and sustain the 
preachers. Let those who can, w^hether from the pulpit, the 
press, or in any other way, urge upon planters the duty of 
having the gospel preached to them. And let those who can 
do nothing else, if any such there be. pray tjiat it may be 
preached to them. Let Christians, at the north and at the 
south, give to this object, the conversion of the slaves to 
Christ, the prominence of which it is vrorthy ; let them think 
of it, and pray for it, and, as they can fxnd opportiuiity, 
labour for it, in proportion to its worth, and as the Spirit of 
Christ dictates, and they will be converted ; their masters will 
labour for their conversion, and for their complete sanctification, 
and God will bless their labours, and the work will be done. 

" Now we ask, is it wise, is it kind, is it Christian, to neglect 
this great object, and to expend all our strength, and all our 
zeal, and endeavour to make all others expend all their strength 
and their zeal, on an object which, however important, is infi- 
nitely less important to the negroes than this? Or, if attention 
to this object be not wholly omitted, is it wise, or kind, or 
Christian, to draw off the attention of the friends of the negroes 
from it, by making any other object more prominent 7 Would 
Paul have done it ? Would Christ ? Should you do it, and 
do it successfully ; and should the result be, that all the slaves 
in the nation should be emancipated, and that thousands should 
die in their sins, who, but for the direction which you gave to 
the public mind, might have been saved, — do you think you 



I 



HON. WILLIAM JAY. 119 

should rejoice in it, when standing with them before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ ? 

" If you say, your object is to bring the whites to "repentance 
for the sin of suffering them to remain in civil bondage ; I ask, 
is it right to do this, by withdrawing their minds from the still 
greater sin, of suffering them to remain in bondage to Satan ? 

" If it be said, that we must procure their release from civil 
bondage, before the gospel can be successfully preached to them ; 
what is this, but to disparage the gospel of Christ, as an insuf- 
ficient remedy for the miseries of the human race, — as not 
adapted to the wants of men, in some of the circumstances in 
which they may be placed ? 

" Is it not plain that men w^ho take such a course, are not as 
they should be ; — that they have given to the temporal an as- 
cendency over the spiritual in their own minds, for which they 
ought to be penitent ? And when we remember that the right 
course would bring to those now in slavery, inevitably, safely, 
and pleasantly to all concerned, all the temporal benefits which 
these men are endeavouring in vain to secure to them by the 
wrong course — is not the imperfection of their wisdom as ma- 
nifest as the imperfection of their piety ? — I mean exactly what 
I say. I have no doubt that many of them possess both wisdom 
and piety ; but both are imperfect, and here is a striking in- 
stance of their imperfection." 

Suffer me, sir, affectionately to commend the foregoing pious 
sentiments to your calm and prayerful reflections. And after 
you shall "' pause, reflect, and pray," ask yourself whether in 
your denunciations against slaveholding, your plea in behalf 
of immediate abolition, and your crusade against colonization, 
you do not neglect the "weightier matters of the law;" and 
whether your zeal has not got the better of your discretion, and 
blinded your moral vision to the '"more excellent way." You 
and I are hastening to the judgment of the great day, with the 
millions of the bond and free, when nought but "truth" will 
be able to stand. The question between us is not, therefore, 
whether you or I be the abler controversialist, else my small 
measure of self-knowledge would have restrained my pen. 
But in the war between truth and error we are both committed 
for eternity, and I, therefore, regard self-sacrifice, an insignifi- 



120 LETTERS TO THE HON. WILLIAM JAY. 

cant consideration. The truth is greater than us both, and for 
the part we take in the present controversy, we are responsible 
here and hereafter. Our motives are infinitely important to 
ourselves, in view of both worlds ; and while I humbly make 
the profession of a sincere and conscientious conviction of duty 
as the predominant motive in this correspondence, I withhold 
not the admission of an equal purity of motive to yourself. 
And in the animadversions I have made upon the sentiments 
and tendency of your book, let me assure you that no unkind 
feelings to yourself have mingled in this effort to vindicate a 
cause which I believe to be identified with the present and 
future happiness of the millions Avho inhabit our own conti- 
nent and that of Africa. And if by inadvertence, any word or 
sentence shall have escaped my notice which shall wound your 
feelings, or indicate a Avant of respect to your Christian cha- 
racter, let it be imputed to the imperfections in my wisdom or 
piety, of which I am ever conscious, and for which I would fain 
repent. My aim has been, however imperfectly performed, to 
glorify God, and overcome error with truth, nor would I con- 
sent to retain a syllable here which " dying, I would wish to 
blot." 

With prayer that we may both be led into the right way, 
and that the truth may make us free, I subscribe myself, 

' With due respect, 

Yours, &c. 



H 33 8 



Q 






* "y . 










•"^^.f 











» ♦ ^ 



"OK 



0' 









i^' 







* ,e ^^ 
















V-°> .;••>>"" v<:^^.\ ""\o^\. 

A 
















HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. 

^^APR 89 

W^IP' N. MANCHESTER 
^^ INDIANA 46962 



A\ o « a *tA. 



